Timeline for past perfect- you had arrived safely?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
17 events
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| Jan 24, 2018 at 13:21 | history | bumped | CommunityBot | This question has answers that may be good or bad; the system has marked it active so that they can be reviewed. | |
| Dec 25, 2017 at 5:45 | answer | added | user4084 | timeline score: 0 | |
| Dec 25, 2017 at 3:47 | answer | added | Eric Gluck | timeline score: 0 | |
| Dec 25, 2017 at 2:17 | answer | added | Markell | timeline score: 1 | |
| Aug 9, 2017 at 16:25 | comment | added | TimR | The semantic context is different from the grammatical tense. would is the past tense of will, even though here it is being used as a conditional (and thus not as something occurring in chronological time but in hypothetical time, so to speak). | |
| Aug 9, 2017 at 15:22 | comment | added | Apollyon | Note the context is that the interlocutor is talking about the future, so s/he hasn't really arrived yet. | |
| Aug 9, 2017 at 15:13 | comment | added | J.R.♦ | @Apollyon - I would say that. | |
| Aug 9, 2017 at 14:35 | comment | added | Apollyon | Can I say "It would ease my mind to know you have arrived safely."? | |
| Aug 9, 2017 at 14:31 | comment | added | TimR | It will ease my mind to know you have arrived safely. It would ease my mind to know you had arrived safely. | |
| Aug 9, 2017 at 13:26 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | Interesting question! I think in practice many native speakers wouldn't bother with Past Perfect had in the cited context, and I certainly don't think many would notice and/or draw any conclusions as to the speaker's command of English if they heard the Simple Past form (...to know you arrived safely). But as regards your point about no simple past tense to act as an anchor for the past perfect, I'm guessing the relevant "past in the (future) past" is a contextually implied reference to the fact that the act of arriving precedes the act of knowing about it. | |
| Aug 9, 2017 at 12:47 | history | edited | Mohd Zulkanien Sarbini | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Aug 9, 2017 at 12:45 | history | edited | Apollyon | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| S Aug 9, 2017 at 12:39 | history | suggested | Alberto Solano | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Aug 9, 2017 at 12:37 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Aug 9, 2017 at 12:39 | |||||
| Aug 9, 2017 at 12:30 | history | edited | Apollyon | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Aug 9, 2017 at 12:09 | history | edited | Apollyon | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Aug 9, 2017 at 12:01 | history | asked | Apollyon | CC BY-SA 3.0 |