"Forgive me, but I've--I've got an appointment." A smile curved across her mouth. It hadn't been a lie , not in the strick sense of the word. Could you explain why use "hadn't been a lie" here? Why 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

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

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, However, words like 'before' and 'after' usually make the sequence of events very clear. In such cases, simple past is commonly used rather than past perfect. eg She turned on the stove before she cooked dinner.

Hi Clive, Thank you for your help. I'll remeber to use Simple Past. I apologize for the typos I made in #1. For #2. I copied it down from a newsletter. Regards, Tinanam

Hi, In both of your examples, I see no reason to use Past Perfect. I'd just use Simple Past. If you have typed them correctly, other parts of the wording suggest to me that these sentences were not written by native speakers.

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