By Past perfect, Constructions

I'm not Clive, obviously, but I think when you have a construction like the following, you need past perfect: By the time I . ==> By the time I arrived, he had left. Clive, is that right?

Bamtori wrote:Thanks for your reply, Marius. With "last night" it is definately "had". Then how about leave out "last night" in the sentence. Which should I use, "we (have/had) some guys come in here and ransack the place."?When will this ransacking take place? Will it be in the future? From...

Generally, you are correct, but time isn't everything in such constructions. The degree of doubt might determine which of the two tenses, the past perfect (for most doubt), or the past (for less) should be used, irrelevant of the temporal element involved. Should you have the opportunity,...

CalifJim wrote: The corresponding past point of view: c He refused to say if he had discussed the succession. d He refused to say if he discussed the succession. d can be considered the exact corresponding sentence to b, with the same "habitual" interpretation, or it just might be taken...

It seems that there's no or little difference in meaning between (1) and (2). (3) and (4) seem to indicate a present impossible situation, and (5) expresses past regrets as you said. I'd also like to hear experts' opinions on this.wishing for the impossible: wish that + past tenses To express...

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 contains...

Hey CJ! 1) Excellent post, that makes it a lot clearer. Question, when you want to express I wish plus a past tense, you always do it like this: "I wish he had stopped calling me." rather than, "I wish he would have stopped calling me." Right? 2) I too have been thinking about it. I did some...

Diamondrg wrote: Which do you think is correct? At the time Auguste Bartholdi designed the Statue of Liberty,_____________ .a- he took advice on the construction of the metal from Gustave Eiffel - YESb- a ferry from Battery Park takes people there every thirty minutes - The tense is...

Calif Jim, I've found out that this construction is PAST PARTICIPLE used instead of PAST PERFECT for making the sentence shorter! Can this be the truth? It really sounds nonsensicaly to me, even the English is not my native language.