Timeline for "I watched the movie many times when..." vs "I had watched the movie many times when..."
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 15, 2021 at 15:48 | comment | added | Lambie | You have asked this question before. | |
| Feb 15, 2021 at 11:25 | vote | accept | Dmytro O'Hope | ||
| Feb 15, 2021 at 3:05 | answer | added | Alex TheBN | timeline score: 0 | |
| Feb 14, 2021 at 13:52 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | Hmm. Not sure how to clarify things. Consider this context: "Do you want to watch Shrek tonight?" "No thanks. I watched it last night. It's obvious to me that last night there isn't functioning as an established "narrative reference time in the past", so you would never say I had watched it last night in that context. Though you might feasibly say I have watched it last night (in which context the narrative reference time is now, not "then, when I watched it"). | |
| Feb 14, 2021 at 13:22 | comment | added | Dmytro O'Hope | Thanks for the comment! I thought "when I was a child" is a narrative reference time. That's why I can't see the difference. | |
| Feb 14, 2021 at 13:18 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | Context #1: I'm watching Shrek again tonight. I watched it many times when I was a child. Context #2: I watched Shrek again last night. I had watched it many times when I was a child. | |
| Feb 14, 2021 at 13:13 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | It all depends on the context. If whatever you were talking about before making this statement was already in the past, use the second (Perfect) verb form. Otherwise use the first (Simple Past). If you just walked up to someone and said I had [done something] as a child (i.e. - no preceding context) they might well ask And then what happened? That's because the Past Perfect effectively requires a "narrative reference time" in the past (since you're referring to something that happened before that time in the past), but that context isn't already established. | |
| Feb 14, 2021 at 13:03 | answer | added | sayfriend | timeline score: -1 | |
| Feb 14, 2021 at 12:50 | history | asked | Dmytro O'Hope | CC BY-SA 4.0 |