Search results for 'tag:Negatives tag:Past perfect' matching tags 'Negatives' and 'Past perfect'

Re: When past perfect is optional?

Anonymous — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 22:28:10 GMT

Hi, again.

I was using 'a few' and 'few' as best as I can in ligth of the sentential context. To me, if the context is negative, then I should use 'few' and the opposite applies to 'a few'.

Contextual application of 'few' and 'few':

He said a few words words during the discussion. -- positive
He rendered few criticisms during the discussion. -- still, positive, to me, because of the existence of the word 'criticisms'.

May be I am applying this concept not-so-well. Could you help?

Re: When past perfect is optional?

Anonymous — Sun, 13 Jul 2008 21:49:15 GMT

Thank you. Does "few awkward moments" cast "few" in negative light, whereas "a few akward moments" cast "a few" in positive light?

a few apples -- enough apples??
few apples -- not enough apples??

Re: Question about what tense to use in this kind of sentences.

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 09:24:31 GMT

conditional sentences are four types: the first is called probable condition in the future like if i see you at the party tomorrow, i will give the prize. if we meet in the conference hall tonight, we will take a group photo. the second is an unreal condition, or contrary to the fact condition or improbable condition or impossible condition to be fulfilled in the present time because there is no time for the condition to be met, so tnere will be no result. such as if you went to the town now you could buy us some fish. there is now time for the action to be done now and now is a short period of time it finishes as soon i finish my sentence. the condition is unreal and the result can't be shown. if you studied for the exam, you would pass but there is no time for him to study and consequently to pass. the fact is he doesn't study so he won't pass. when we convert into a conditional sentence the condition is opposite the fact and the tense becomes the past of that in the fact. the third is an unreal condition in the past. the condition is opposite the fact and the tense is the past of that in the fact. he didn't study so he didn't pass. if he had studied, he would have passed. the past from the simple past is past perfect. when the statement in the fact is positive the condition is negative and vice versa.

(Unknown 22884)OHHH I FINALLY CAN POST!!!

Jen001 — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 01:51:40 GMT

"The Change of the Characteristics in the passage from The Hours"

The passage from the novel The Hours by Michael Cunningham is intriguing. The passage illustrates the difference between the character's characteristics in different time settings: past and present. This difference is clearly shown through the contrasting structure, imagery and language.

The structure reflects the division of the time setting and helps to contrast the different characteristics. The passage has two paragraphs, each describing the character's thoughts and perception about a same place, of the past and present. The length of each paragraph is different; the one from the past is much longer than the other one from the present. This can be related to each of the paragraph's sentence construction. In the first paragraph, about the past, the lengths of the sentences are very long. The first sentence takes eight lines, lengthened continuously within commas, semi-colons and colons. In fact, in one sentence, there are five commas, five semi-colons and a colon. This overly-continued sentence gives a sense of unfiltered, informal, and unrestricted flowing of thoughts. Moreover, the use of brackets, âsome sort of wood(cedar? Camphor?),â seems to be less sophisticated, compared to using dashes or other punctuations of the same function. However, in the second paragraph of the present, the sentence construction is shown contrastingly. The paragraph starts with a short simple sentence: âShe turns down Bleecker, goes up Thomson.â Also, in this paragraph, there are four sentences in six lines, and three of the four sentences are written in simple sentence, including the example above. Although there are a few commas in some of the sentences, there is no semi-colon, but only a colon in the last sentence. The colon is used in a very appropriate way, functioning to introduce the list of âthingsâ, such as âjewelryâ and âjackets.â Thus, within the brief and concise sentence construction, the character in the present appears to be more mature, filtered and sophisticated than in the past. However, as a result of that, the sense of youthful, unfiltered freedom cannot be found anymore in the present.

In addition to the structure, the contrasting imagery of each paragraph demonstrates further differences of the characteristic in the past and present. As both paragraphs are of the same setting, the image of the same place is described at each time. So, the consistent place makes the comparison between the two more distinctive and reliable. The imagery of the place is very vivid in the past, not only within the visual sense, but also within the auditory and olfactory senses, whereas that of the past only relies on the sense of sight. For example, in the past, âthe neighborhoodâ is depicted as âthe center of something new and wildâ in âthe city where the sound of guitars drifted all nightâ and âwhere the stores â¦ smelled the way â¦ Arab bazaars must smell.â This is detail, imaginative and lively, even the âArab bazaarsâ creates a somewhat mystical and adventurous atmosphere. This interesting and passionate depiction is being minimized in the present into three words: an âimitation of itself.â It is now âa watered-down carnival for tourists,â which gives a sense of inactivity and boredom. Also, the stores now âall sell essentially the same things,â such as âsouvenir T-shirts.â This seems to be dull, with no excitement or creativity or passion. This changed imagery, depicted by the character, rather shows the change in the character's perception. The change in perception is demonstrated more clearly within the notion of the âdoorâ and âalley.â In the past, she says, âif you passed through the wrong door or down the wrong alley you would meet a fate,â however, in the present, she âknows that behind these doors, and down these alleys lies nothing more or less than people living their lives.â In the past, she seems to be more concerned with the 'inner' world of thought or imagination. Whereas in the present, she seems to be more grounded in the external world of physical reality. As like the previously discussed change in the sentence structure, she is now more sophisticated, knowledgeable and realistic than the past. Also, as like the image of the place, her perception changed from the creative, interesting and adventurous to the boring, predictable and filtered way. Thus, the contrasting imagery of the past and present reflects the similar change in the character's perception.

While the structure and the imagery convey the distinctive change in the characteristics of the character, the contrasting use of language supports those differences. More specifically, the diction [dash]shown in the past and the present[dash] is comparable. Reflecting the imagery of the varied senses, the words and expressions used in the past are also varied and animated, such as âincense and richâ and âdung-y dustâ describing the smell of the stores. These two expressions, âincense and richâ and âdung-y dustâ are contrasting; they express the diversity of the object. Moreover, the speaker creates a non-existing adjective, âdung-y.â The extra adding of â-yâ grants a more animated image, and it gives a sense of freedom and even somewhat childishness. The âsmellâ is then described as âsomething fruitily, fertilely rotting.â Again, she creates a non-existing adverb, âfruitily,â expressing the scent rather vividly, which would be sour as it ârots.â The other adverb âfertilelyâ contributes to create a sense of abundance and richness of the imagery. However, the use of those two positive adverbs, modifying the negative verb ârottingâ seems to be oxymoron in âfruit[full]â or âfertile,â as well as the use of adjective âdisreputable,â following ânew and wild.â The oxymoron adds an unpredictable sense to the imagery and hence to the depicter's thoughts. On the other hand, in the present, the adjectives used to describe the âcityâ and the âstores,â are ânothing,â âless,â âsame,â and âstill.â All of them are negative and reflect the boredom, dullness and hopelessness. More significantly, the speaker uses the adverb, âGrotesquelyâ before describing how âthe same bars and coffeehouses are still [th]ereâ, showing the character's cynical characteristic. So does the use of the adjective âcheapâ for the goods at the stores. Thus, in the past, the character uses language interestingly [dash] it is diverse, lively and creative [dash] whereas that of the past is inactive, hopeless and cynical. These differences are directly reflecting the character's contrasting, changed characteristic.

The change of the characteristic seems to be abrupt. As a cause, something would have happened to her, that is not shown in the passage. However, an assumption can be drawn within the evidences from the passage. There is a shift in the first paragraph within âHere,â showing the shifted tense from the past to the past perfect. In the past perfect, there is a scene of Clarissa, the major character, and her boyfriend Richard. She seems to appreciate Richard a lot, for example, she does not use the pronoun 'he' for âRichard,â even though he is the only male character. So, in a sentence, Richard is successively repeated three times, âwith Richard, when Richard â¦ when Richard.â Moreover, she describes his appearance in detail; he âwas nineteen,â âa firm-featured, hard-eyed, not-quite-beautiful dark-haired boy with an impossibly long and graceful, very pale neck.â So, to describe Richard, she combines an adjective and a noun to create a single adjective, such as âhard-eyed.â This shows her seriousness about describing him precisely. His âimpossibly longâ and âvery paleâ neck would seem negative, if not for the complementary adjective âgraceful.â Also, the adverb âimpossiblyâ gives a sense of special and unusual feeling for the person. Besides the use of language, the use of punctuation should also be noted. There are many commas, causing the sentences to seem choppy. This would be imitating the feeling of uncertainty and the tension in the situation. The uncertainty of the situation is shown in the line, ââ¦about what? A kiss? Had Richard kissed her, or had she, Clarissaâ¦,â also the tension created as they âhad certainly argued.â Then, the reason for the âargu[ment]â is explained: âClarissa wanted her freedom and Richard wanted, well, too much.â It is notable that as Richard âwanted â¦ too muchâ relating to the âkiss,â the pronoun 'he' is used as âdidn't he always?â In this case, however, the pronoun 'he' seems to more likely indicate every 'man', rather than particularly âRichard.â Thereafter the paragraph ends, and the paragraph of the present starts. It is not sure whether the abrupt change in Clarissa's characteristic is due to âRichardâ or not. Although it is not, it is evident that Clarissa once considered and cared about him quite specially.

Despite of the uncertain reason, the change in the Clarissa's characteristic from the past to the present is shown clearly throughout the contrasting structure, imagery and language. The characteristic includes the thoughts and perception, which were unrestricted, unfiltered, creative and animated in the past; whereas in the present, they are shown restricted, filtered, dull and inactive. The change is extreme, but no particular evidence for the extremity is being suggested, except the short scene with Richard. Thus, this passage not only introduces the setting and the character, but also evokes the reader's curiosity: What has happened to Clarissa?

------------------------------------------------

I really really really appreciate for your help... Thank you..!

Re: I want to find some friend to talk and improve my english

Quangtrungvtv — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 03:09:23 GMT

Yesterday, I was joint in a interview in s-fone corp. It is difficult to pass this exam because it very hard.

This exam include two parts : IQ part and English part. In IQ part , I did quite well , but English part I donât understand any sentence .

I am studying lines-lines Books, intermediate level, fellow I want to write some sentence about this book.

UNIT 1 : MODERN LIFE .

Grammar in use :

1In this unit show past ten, simple present tense .

2. this part talk about a story of effect modern life . This is simple story but it practice use tense of English.

UNIT 2 .FORTUNE

Grammar :

Talking about the past :

Grammar in use :

look at the photographs and headline of the newspaper article .

Question one : where does story take place ?

Answer : story talk about fortune of life . It is talking about Chris Bod , a programmer . After sell his house , with 145,000 $ he had taken plan to Las Vegas . Chris sitting all day in Casino and finally he lost all his money . He comeback London and live in a small flat . sine , He âve given up gambling.

Rules : the articale contain four tenses for talking about the past .

underlines positive and negative examples of each these tense

. The simple past

The past continuous

The past perfect

The present perfect.

How do we form each tense find example regular and irregular verbs.

Re: contingent on the prior completion of the other

Clive — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 04:48:29 GMT

Hi,

I wasn't going to *** because he had previously done yyyyyyyyyy. The first action, ***, is contingent on the prior completion of the other, yyyyyyy. The past perfect is appropriate for yyyyyyyyyy.

I know, contingent on = depending on; but I still cannot understand the highlighed parts.

Action B is contingent on the prior completion of action A This means that action B depends on the completion of action A. A simpler way to say it is that action B can't occur until action A is completed.

Your example is hard to understand because the 'first action' seems to be a negative kind of action. In such a case, it's not clear to me what the writer means when he speaks of 'the first action'. In other words, I don't like the way your example is written. It seems unclear.

Best wishes, Clive

Re: past perfect in dependent clause

Feathers — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 03:36:31 GMT

CalifJim wrote:
<<He got up before the sun had risen.>>

Yes. Here it's not a matter of the sun's rising never happening, but of the sun not yet rising at the time of the getting up. So phrasing it as "never happening" is clearly not correct. "not yet happening by the time of the action of the main clause" is closer to the truth.

What do you think?

CJ

I agree, and gather, from your following explanation, that this construction puts some emphasis on the "not-yet"-ness, so to speak.

CalifJim wrote:

the use of the past perfect in a before clause is quite common regardless of the time sequence -- as in "I saw the end before we had begun". [There's usually some surprising logic and a hidden negative in these: I (already) saw the end (and that was surprising) because we had not (even) begun (yet). ]

CJ

Very interesting.

Re: past perfect in dependent clause

CalifJim — Thu, 19 Jul 2007 20:12:18 GMT

Students are often led to believe that the past perfect must indicate a situation that existed before another. (This is true in general.) But, following this logic, it seems that the past perfect could never occur in a before clause. (It 'should' only occur in the main clause in such cases.)

But the use of the past perfect in a before clause is quite common regardless of the time sequence -- as in "I saw the end before we had begun". [There's usually some surprising logic and a hidden negative in these: I (already) saw the end (and that was surprising) because we had not (even) begun (yet). ]

Here are some others I found on various websites. Note the implied negatives. (had not yet ... when)

Mozart died before he had completed the Requiem Mass. [He had not yet completed the Mass when he died..]
One of the fast things suddenly zoomed by from the left and was gone before he had even realized it was coming. [He had not yet realized it was coming when it zoomed by.]
Before he had finished speaking, another servant came in and said that dinner was ready. [He had not yet finished speaking when this happened.]
He was whisked away to his next appointment before he had announced the finalists. [He had not yet announced the finalists when he was whisked away.]
A terrible scream cleaved the air before he had walked very far. [He had not yet walked far when the scream was heard.]
Before he had even recovered, ten days later he tried suicide again. [He had not yet recovered when he tried suicide.]
He was surely the first man to be a senior official in the Ryder Cup before he had even played in the grand old match. [He had not yet played in that match when he became a senior official.]
___________

Compare with the "normal" sequence of tenses, with no implied negations:

Jack had met her at a business conference before he noticed her that night at the party.
Before they proceeded with their project they had planned every detail, of course.
The politicians had used every trick in the book to pass the bill before they finally gave up.
___________

I would not be surprised to learn that before with implied negation (with the past perfect) is used more than before with the normal sequence of tenses.

CJ

Re: Present and past perfect

Philip — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 14:44:41 GMT

Kooyeen wrote:
Hi,
I already asked about this, apparently I didn't understand or got no answer. Here:

There's a guy who's trying to run through a wall of flames with his bicycle, completely naked. He starts, he passes through the flames, he succeeds. Everyone applaudes. After a few minutes, after he get dressed, I go congratulate him. What should I say?

Congratulations man, that was great! [~~I've~~/I'd] never seen [~~someone~~/anyone] do that completely naked!

I need some advice on the possible ways to say that. Thanks

Many would use the present perfect because of the closeness of the time of the action. Technically speaking, however, I think the past perfect is more correct.

['anyone' because of the preceding negative 'never']

[for some reason, 'congratulations' is generally used in the plural]

Re: not until..

CalifJim — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 18:16:55 GMT

We can not use a negative past perfect tense as the tense of the main verb of an untÄ±l clause.

I understand this to mean: We cannot use a negative past perfect tense in the main clause when an until clause is present in the same sentence. This is false.

There is a simple reason why we were late for the meeting: We hadn't left the house until it (had) stopped raining.

CJ