The tense

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Newguest

#486446 Sat, 08 Mar 08 07:49 PM

Is it OK to say: What did you do in England before you came here? (is it a good tense?) Maybe it should be: What had you done in England before you came here? (it sounds pretty strange for me, but maybe it's grammatically correct)

thanks

Newguest

Joined on Sun, Feb 25 2007

Contributing Member (1,223)

Tenses

Doll

#486449 Sat, 08 Mar 08 08:10 PM

My two cents:

Second sentence is very grammatical, I mean it is correct. Smile But you can use the first one too.

Doll

Joined on Sat, Mar 10 2007

Turkey

Senior Member (2,579)

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Seraphin

#486450 Sat, 08 Mar 08 08:27 PM

they could mean different things, as far as i, a non-native speaker, am concerned

1. what did you do ... ? - it could be like asking what kind of job you had back in England ?

2. what had you done ... ? - it could be like investigating if you did anything terrible in England and now fled here

my $0.015 :)

Seraphin

Joined on Sat, Feb 9 2008

Full Member (146)

Newguest

#486456 Sat, 08 Mar 08 09:08 PM

Seraphin
they could mean different things, as far as i, a non-native speaker, am concerned

1. what did you do ... ? - it could be like asking what kind of job you had back in England ?

2. what had you done ... ? - it could be like investigating if you did anything terrible in England and now fled here

my $0.015 :)

Maybe you're right, but by writing these two sentences I wanted to say the same thing, i.e. what was his job in England before he decided to come here.

Newguest

Ant_222

#486459 Sat, 08 Mar 08 09:35 PM

I agree with Seraphin.

Also, if you want to use a perfect tense to say the same, use Perfect Progressive:
"What had you been doing before you came here?"

Ant_222

Joined on Sun, May 21 2006

Podolsk, Russia

Contributing Member (1,584)

Tenses, Perfect Progressive

CalifJim

#486511 Sun, 09 Mar 08 04:55 AM

Newguest
Is it OK to say: What did you do in England before you came here?

Yes. Perfectly OK. Perfect, ordinary, everyday, correct English.

CalifJim

Joined on Mon, Aug 2 2004

California

Veteran Member (17,712)

"There are no facts, only interpretations" - Nietzsche

Newguest

#486630 Sun, 09 Mar 08 11:51 AM

CalifJim
Newguest
Is it OK to say: What did you do in England before you came here?
Yes. Perfectly OK. Perfect, ordinary, everyday, correct English.

CJ

Hi. I believe that you're right CJ, but it's a bit strange for me.

The first part of the sentence refers to something which happened before something else happened in the past, so in my opinion it should be "had beed doing" ("had done" would change the meaning, I guess).

Newguest

Ant_222

#486755 Sun, 09 Mar 08 07:53 PM

Even with Past Simple the sequence of events in this sentence is so clear and unambigous that there's stll no chance of misinterpreting it, so I think a native would prefer this less wordy and redundant version, and only in grammar books where there's a strong tendency to (over-)simplify compicated stuff, you will find such examples with no mention that Past Simple is also possible and even sometimes better!

Ant_222

Grammar, Past Simple

Newguest

#486769 Sun, 09 Mar 08 09:21 PM

Ant_222
Even with Past Simple the sequence of events in this sentence is so clear and unambigous that there's stll no chance of misinterpreting it, so I think a native would prefer this less wordy and redundant version, and only in grammar books where there's a strong tendency to (over-)simplify compicated stuff, you will find such examples with no mention that Past Simple is also possible and even sometimes better!

I see. Probably you 're right Wink

Newguest

Grammar, Past Simple

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