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Let's say there are two summers. Summer of 2012, summer of 2011. And summer of 2012 was bad time, whereas the summer of 2012 is the best summer I've had.

Now, if I put it this way.

"I knew that was going to be a bad summer (2012). But the last summer (2011) had been the best summer I've ever spent."

Is it grammatically correct? Is this usage of the past perfect right?

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    Please edit your question - you state that summer of 2012 was bad and also the best.
    – Davo
    Commented Aug 18, 2019 at 16:05

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It sounds very wrong to me.

I would suggest:

'I knew the summer of 2012 was going to be bad, but at least the summer before had been one of the best I'd ever had.'

Alan.

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  • But if at the time of writing may be end of 2012, the summer of 2011 was and still is one of the best, can I change the last past perfect in present perfect because this statement is still true.
    – Yves Lefol
    Commented Aug 10, 2019 at 13:25
  • Okay, so if you are at the end of the summer of 2012 (or later), you could say: 'The summer of 2012 was bad, but at least the summer before had been one of the best I'd ever had. The past perfect ('had been') is fine here. For what its worth, I would resist using the word 'bad' (crappy word in general, mainly used by kids), nor repeat the use of the word 'had' at the end of the sentence (experienced would sound better), but those are not grammatical errors, just matters of style, so you can ignore me on that :-)
    – Alan
    Commented Aug 10, 2019 at 20:46

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