Search results for 'tag:Simple past tag:Past perfect' matching tags 'Simple past' and 'Past perfect'

Re: How to remember tenses?

Goodman — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:25:45 GMT

Huygen,

By reading your post, something tells me that your English level should be beyond the question you just asked, and able to categorize the tenses already.

There are 3 basic tenses: Simple past â present â future

There are past progressive- present progressive- future progressive.

Then there past perfect- present perfect âfuture perfect which is not commonly used.

I am curious, may be I am missing something. Why do you have to memorize the tenses?

We should be able use it according to the sense of time.

You are walking â you are doing something at this minute. So itâs present progressive

I walk 2 miles everyday after work. Simple present, used to reflect a routine.

They were watching TV when you called last night.- Simple past progressive.

The perfect tenses are more complex and you may have to do some reading and studying on your own.

Here is something which may be helpful: http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/presentperfect.html

Re: Question about tense

CalifJim — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 02:54:30 GMT

A. Kim no longer buys the salad dressing and other condiments that she bought until last year.
B. Kim no longer buys the salad dressing and other condiments that she had bought until last year.

Both are possible. The first is a sort of abbreviation of the second. The simple past is often substituted for the past perfect when the meaning is obvious.

I would have said Kim no longer buys ... that she used to buy until last year.

Re: simple past or the past perfect tense

Goodman — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 05:43:40 GMT

" I told him what I did".
There is nothing wrong with this sentence.
If we discuss events in the distance past, then past perfect no doubt is correct based on absolute grammar rules.
I saw my friend John in the grocery store whom I hadn't seen for years. When I got home I told my wife who I just saw minutes ago in the store.
I see nothing in correct about this.

Re: tenses

Clive — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 23:39:50 GMT

Hi,
what is the difference between had shown and shown
I had shown is Past Perfect tense

shown is a past participle. I wonder if you meant I showed, which is Simple Past.

People often ask about the difference between Past Perfect and Simple Past. First, search the Forum with these terms and you will find lots of discussion. Then, ask any questions that you still have.

Best wishes, Clive

Re: TOEIC/ error recognition

Clive — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:31:53 GMT

Hi,
When the repair person (A) had completed her work (B) was fixing the PCs in our office, she (C) put away her tools and (D) wrote out a bill for the supervisor.

The answer key says (B) is incorrect but doesn't tell me what to change, so I think it could be corrected as follows:

1. fixing
2. to fix
3. which was fixing

Please advise on these possible corrections. All 3 of your suggestions are incorrect grammar. It's a hard test sentence for a student to understand, because A and B are actually alternatives. B is incorrect, and A is correct.

In addition, I was wondering why (A) is in past perfect tense but not the past tense word "completed"? I remember one native speaker in this forum once told me that the verb tense appeared in a "when" clause should usually go with simple tense.Past Perfect is fine, but Simple Past would also be fine. The sequence of events is clear.

Please also advise on this one.

Best wishes, Clive

Re: sentence structure

Huevos — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 20:25:46 GMT

eagerness
"You should have told me that you don't know how to install it. I could have helped you."

"Should have" is a hypothesis of the past, hence the subordinate verb should also be in the past for reasons of concordance. Simple past and past perfect both are usable here.

Re: stay back

Avangi — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 18:29:35 GMT

New2grammar
Though there's nothing much she can do to help, talking to her does help make me feel better. She has been busy organizing a teambuilding event for her team. A few weeks ago, she went to China to check out a hotel. It was pretty cheesy, she said. But since they were on a budget, she took it. Yesterday, she had to stay back until almost midnight to prepare for the event. She has been really busy, not only with the teambuilding but also with ~~administration~~ administrative work that a colleague of ~~her~~ hers has passed to her after joining the sales team. At times, I pity her. She rarely gets off at 6 these days. I admire her determination though she complains to me from time to time.

You make us struggle to figure out what your problem is. After a while we get the idea that maybe you feel sorry for yourself because she's so busy she neglects you. Or is your problem that you feel guilty because you can't do anything to help lighten her load? I think it would require a lot of skill to say, "nothing she can do to help" (HELP WITH WHAT??) and then gradually reveal what the problem is.

they were on a budget (her team??)

she took it (the hotel??)

stay back (not a US expression - work over, stay over, work late, they kept me over, etc.)

has passed to her after joining the sales team - This is probably okay, but I prefer "had passed." Passing and joining are both acts which have been completed at some past time prior to her having been really busy with administrative work. (I'm too tired for this.) You have two present perfect tenses, has passed and has been busy. One was completed before the other. Both were preceded by the joining. I guess that's okay, but "had passed to her" sounds better to my ear. (I know there's no simple past to reference the past perfect. Oh well.)

- A.

Re: Past perfect and "before"

Mr Wordy — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:24:14 GMT

Viceidol
But I found many cases using "never + simple past" in Google Book search: http://books.google.com/books?lr=&hl=zh-TW&q=%22She+never+saw+a%22 , which has 676 results using key words "She never saw a".

Some of these are sentences like "She never saw a play in her life" (to choose an example at random), where there is no sense of a time before something else, so no need to use the past perfect.

Having said that, I do not entirely agree that sentences like "She never saw a bear before she moved to Alaska." are wrong. I prefer the past perfect, but the simple past is common enough, and it does not strike me as a particularly bad error, if an error at all.

Re: Past perfect and "before"

Viceidol — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 01:10:33 GMT

Huevos
Plain and simple, even though it exists in many/most dialects, using "never + simple past" is not Standard English. So you are limited to "she did not see" or "she had never seen", or some derivative of either.

But I found many cases using "never + simple past" in Google Book search: http://books.google.com/books?lr=&hl=zh-TW&q=%22She+never+saw+a%22 , which has 676 results using key words "She never saw a".

Re: The children had all gone to sleep at 9 o'clock last night.

CalifJim — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 17:28:25 GMT

Viceidol
The children had all gone to sleep at 9 o'clock last night ....
"The children all went to sleep at 9 o'clock last night."

The difference is in the context. No context is given, so we imagine a different context for each sentence that allows us to make sense of it. To understand the difference you need to understand the idea of the "timeline" of a story -- a "line" in time which is created by telling a story.

George left the house. Then he got into his car. Then he drove to work. Then he got out of his car. Then he walked to his office on the second floor. ...

Do you see how a story sets up a line in time? First one thing happens; then another; then another. The events are told in the order in which they occur.

You're not going to mix up the events of your story like this:

George drove to work. Then he left the house. Then he walked to his office on the second floor. Then he got into his car.

That would be a totally incomprehensible mess!

So we usually tell a story in the same order in which it occurred, staying on the "timeline".

______

But sometimes we want to mention something that happened before the story even started. We want to leave the timeline of the story for a little while to explain something we haven't explained yet, or may have forgotten to mention earlier.

In this case we alert the listener that we are going backwards in time by using the past perfect.

George got out of his car. Then he walked to his office on the second floor. He had left the house and driven to work earlier than usual that day.

______

Viceidol
how does it differ ?

So, to repeat the point more briefly, the two differ by having been extracted from two different (imagined) contexts.

The children got ready for bed. They went to sleep at 9. They slept well. They woke up refreshed the next morning and ate breakfast.

The children woke up refreshed and ate breakfast. They had gone to sleep at 9 and had slept well. Now they were ready for school.

The simple past shows that the event is being told in its natural order in time.

The past perfect shows that the event is not being told in its natural order. It's a temporary deviation from the main timeline.