But can we use the past perfect to describe just one action that happened in the past?-- No, not without some contextual reference to another past event: Rodel had been driving 120 miles per hour for thirty minutes when he hit the tree. And how

Throughout the book this author uses the present tense, and that's fine (Although a lot of novels use the past tense, some use the present as this one) Now, what's perplexing me is she uses the past perfect without a point of reference in

Joe left the house, but before he had reached the place, his wife called him to call John. When he got to the place, he used a public phone nearby to call John. ... Your examples would be easier to deal with if you used fewer generic words like

I would like someone to confirm my thoughts on the following sentence, to see if I am on the right track or am just in fantasy lala land, going off on a tangent: "Because Malcolm had never become a cutthroat CEO, he had few enemies." I

As soon as you see her, you say: Finally! I've been waiting so long! You use the present tense because there is no reason to use the past perfect unless there is a past reference point. The reference point is the moment she arrived, which can

Hi Anon: If you look in any English language reference book under verb tenses, you will find the answer to your question. "be" is a helping verb (auxilliary) for the passive voice of verbs, and "have" is the helping verb for

Hi, In addition to the previous post, here is a reference that may help you. Whenever we use reference of time passed, like last week, and yesterday, a simple past tense will do just fine, and also, Words of past time is never to be used

can you explain to us your viwepoint? Probably not! All I can say is that the past perfect didn't bother me when I read what you wrote. (By the way, I think the simple past is just fine as well.) )) Yeah, that's what (and how) my intuition

can you explain to us your viwepoint? Probably not! All I can say is that the past perfect didn't bother me when I read what you wrote. (By the way, I think the simple past is just fine as well.) This would be my approach to explain further:

Past perfect tense is used for an action that started and completed in the past. It requires a reference for the time the action was finished. Your sentence provides such an explicit reference: 10 o'clock this morning. Use simple past when