Do/does/did is not used in questions 1. with forms of to be : Is he happy? Were they swimming? 2. with perfect and past perfect auxiliaries : Have you seen him? Had it already begun? 3. sometimes with have/has/had when the verb is in the

Sorry to butt in like this. I'm sure Clive will give his expert advice but let me try to explain it the way I see it (from a non native speaker's point of view). Regarding the New York sentence, since both the living/working

What about 3 days ago? Should I use past perfect or present perfect?

Hi, Really, I don't feel I have anything I want to add at this point, and I don't want to get repetitive. My advice is that you digest things a bit and let them settle in your mind. At the same time, every time you use Past

Sorry to butt in like this. I'm sure Clive will give his expert advice but let me try to explain it the way I see it (from a non native speaker's point of view). Regarding the New York sentence, since both the living/working occur

Thank you Clive for the critique. For the New York sentence, is there anything wrong or misleading in the construction that needs to be reworded. After the rewording, the original past perfect context has been erased. Maybe I tried too hard to

Please help me how to use 'if' clause.. how if the clause is in present or past tense, or in present or past perfect tense.. Many thanks for ur kind help :)

Hi, The couple next door had argued and gotten physical frequently months prior to the last night's shooting. Sounds fine either way to me. He had worked for a couple of restaurants in town as a waiter before he became a big time

Hi Clive, Thanks for taking the time on my query. I guess what I had in mind when I used "had taken computer science for 2 semesters.." rather than the simple "took" was the deliberate intent to emphasize the duration I had

Hi, Please allow me to clarify my own question. I've learned that if we have 2 events which took place in the past, the long preceding event should be described in past perfect. I don't feel that the lengthof the earleir event is a