http://www.englishforums.com/English/GeneralEnglishGrammarQuestions/Forum12.htmAsk your questions on grammar and get your sentence checked. We answer lots of different types of general English grammar questions here.enCSMOD (Build: 3273.32735)http://www.englishforums.com/English/HadArrested/gxnxr/post.htm#573903Mon, 06 Oct 2008 22:10:09 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:573903Avangi0http://www.englishforums.com/English/HadArrested/gxnxr/post.htm#573903http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-573903.xml<BLOCKQUOTE><div><img src="/Themes/englishforums/images/icon-quote.gif"> <strong>iconoffashion</strong></div><div>Now, the police officer who <strong>had arrested</strong> Mernel Koh, 15, is blaming himself for her death in his personal blog. <br /><br />Question: Can you explain why this sentence uses had arrested instead of <span style="BACKGROUND-COLOR:#ffbfff;">has</span> arrested? </div></BLOCKQUOTE> &quot;<span style="TEXT-DECORATION:underline;">Has</span> arrested&quot; is a bit special.&nbsp; Technically, an arrest occurs at one point in time, when you put a stop to someones liberty, or freedom of movement.&nbsp; Thereafter, the person is <strong><em><span style="TEXT-DECORATION:underline;">under arrest</span></em></strong>.&nbsp;<br /><br />But in practice, we often think of the arrest as a long process, like a marriage (which also may be said to occur at one point in time).<br /><br />&quot;Where&#39;s my brother?&quot; (reply) &quot;He&#39;s still being arrested!&quot;&nbsp; (transported to the station, fingerprinted, interrogated, strip-searched, etc.)<br /><br />Additionally, &quot;She <span style="TEXT-DECORATION:underline;">has been arrested</span>&quot; / &quot;the officer <span style="TEXT-DECORATION:underline;">who has arrested</span> her&quot; implies she&#39;s still in custody.<br /><br />&quot;He <span style="TEXT-DECORATION:underline;">has handcuffed</span> her&quot; implies she&#39;s still in handcuffs.&nbsp; The action took only a moment, but her condition persists.&nbsp; &quot;He has injured her.&quot;&nbsp; Her condition persists.&nbsp; (&quot;He has injured her before,&quot; is a little different.)<br /><br />Your question might have been, &quot;Why wasn&#39;t the simple past used in this case?&quot;&nbsp; (the police officer who <span style="TEXT-DECORATION:underline;">arrested</span> Mernel Koh).&nbsp; The answer to that would have been, &quot;No reason at all, except the author wished to <em><span style="TEXT-DECORATION:underline;">emphasize</span></em> the sequence of events&nbsp;&nbsp; -&nbsp;&nbsp; that the arrest preceded the death.&quot;<br /><br />&quot;He handcuffed her.&quot;&nbsp;&nbsp;(simple past&nbsp;&nbsp; -&nbsp;&nbsp; she may or may not still be in handcuffs)<br /><br />&nbsp; - A.<div style="clear:both;"></div>http://www.englishforums.com/English/HadArrested/gxnnz/post.htm#573891Mon, 06 Oct 2008 21:14:28 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:573891CalifJim1http://www.englishforums.com/English/HadArrested/gxnnz/post.htm#573891http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-573891.xmlThe past perfect (<i>had arrested</i>) is a dependent tense.&nbsp; It indicates anteriority to some other event.&nbsp; In this case, the arrest happened before other events of interest, most notably, the death of Mernel Koh.</p><p>CJ&nbsp;<div style="clear:both;"></div>http://www.englishforums.com/English/HadArrested/gxnkl/post.htm#573846Mon, 06 Oct 2008 19:01:02 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:573846Cool Breeze2http://www.englishforums.com/English/HadArrested/gxnkl/post.htm#573846http://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-573846.xml&nbsp;The past perfect is right because the person is dead.</p><p>CB <br /><div style="clear:both;"></div>http://www.englishforums.com/English/HadArrested/gxnjj/post.htmMon, 06 Oct 2008 17:55:32 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:573827iconoffashion3http://www.englishforums.com/English/HadArrested/gxnjj/post.htmhttp://www.englishforums.com/English/comments12-573827.xmlNow, the police officer who <strong>had arrested</strong> Mernel Koh, 15, is blaming himself for her death in his personal blog. <br /> <br /> <br /> Question: Can you explain why this sentence uses had arrested instead of has arrested?<div style="clear:both;"></div>