By Past perfect, Conversations

Hi welcome to the forum, Past perfect can be troublesome for learners. The sequence of events that took place in any situation is important when past perfect is used. We first must understand the time reference in which past perfect is used. Based on the dialog, everything is correct....

CalifJim wrote:In actual practice, the use of the past perfect quite frequently violates the mathematically precise timelines set out for it in grammar books! It is merely an indicator that something happened in the context of something past. Now the problem is that this past point of view...

In actual practice, the use of the past perfect quite frequently violates the mathematically precise timelines set out for it in grammar books! It is merely an indicator that something happened in the context of something past. Now the problem is that this past point of view has to be...

Hi again, Is the following grammatically correct? YesYesterday I went to town.I had bought a bag. This tells me you bought the bag before this visit to town. My understanding was it would be grammatically incorrect to use the past perfect in such contexts. You ought to write the simple past...

Sorry the following letter had been posted in last week. But i still have problems concerning the tense. I find four tenses (present, past, present perfect and past perfect) in a letter. I feel it is incorrect in letter writing. Have any helper to resolve my problem? (Grammar book: reported...

Sorry the following letter had been posted in last week. But i still have problems concerning the tense. I find four tenses (present, past, present perfect and past perfect) in a letter. I feel it is incorrect in letter writing. Have any helper to resolve my problem? (Grammar book: reported...

Lcchang wrote: Dear teachers, I also have a same question like this. Before I got to the station, the bus had already left. Before I got to the station, the bus already left. When I got to the station, the bus had already left. When I got to the station, the bus already left. If a...

I think in most cases, either past perfect or simple past tense will allow casual subjects in a conversation to come across. But the difference is how clearly the detailed information is one wishing to depict then use the tense accordingly. In other words it's the level of details that determines...

Hi, Glad you asked this question. How English speaking people use English does not represent the correctness of their English. That said, I would say what you hear depends a lot on the class of people you converse with and this has nothing to do with economics. By that, I mean rich people don’t...

Even just a minute ago, the telling is past, and you have now, as you speak, indeed heard of it. Therefore, use past perfect if the main clause is in the past However, if you are actually speaking to him at that moment, have is permissable and probably common; the conversation is not yet...