In Auxiliaries^x, Past perfect^x

MrPedantic In Swedish, the auxiliary should be there when writing the past perfect. Jag har ätit lunch. De hade en bil.

Hello Rotter I see you put your location as Sweden. Out of interest, is the auxiliary often omitted in the past perfect, in Swedish? MrP

In #1, the verb is in the passive voice, the past perfect tense. In the active voice, it would be The gas explosion had blown out all the shop's windows. Blown out is a phrasal verb; had been blown out is a verb with auxiliaries. In #2, had is the (whole) verb and blown out is a past participle...

OK - I've got the answer. Sorry it took so long, but I had to do the research, so I bought a copy of "The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar", (No disputing the authority of that, I hope?), and looked up "plupluperfect". So here's what it said: plulpluperfect - A verb phrase that...

Old Eladio wrote: CJ: "Past: I had to go. (had is the main verb)" "In short, only the present and past tenses require the addition of do or does (present), or did (past) before inverting" Now, if I write: "I had made a serious mistake" or "I had to do it"; are the corresponding...

What is the rule governing the usage of simple past in the second clause here? There is no simple past in the second clause. Even if you answer "vacuumed" (not "had vacuumed"), the form you are using ("vacuumed") is not the simple past, but the past participle, which forms a past perfect...

If would say, "By the time I got home, my children had already done the dishes and vacuumed the floor." It is not incorrect to include a second auxiliary verb (had), but it sounds needlessly repetitive. It is rarely used except for emphasis. For instance, if the speaker wanted to stress the...

OK. Now, in Clive's sentence <"Clive told me he had had an interview'.>, the main verb is "have", conjugated in the past perfect = auxiliary "have" in the simple past (=had), + past participle of the main verb have = "had". In the "had had seen" sentence, your main verb is "see". It...

Jack112 wrote: Sorry for my lack of understanding. Could you give me a few more examples as to how to distinguish between them? 1. I have never had more girlfriends than I have now. (Correct) 2. I have never had more girlfriends than I do now. (Is this one correct as well? How...

1. I have never had more girlfriends than I have now. (Correct) 2. I have never had more girlfriends than I do now. (Is this one correct as well? How do I distinguish between a main verb and an auxiliary?) An amateur player from a working class family, Francis Ouimet - played by...