Questions tagged [past-vs-past-perfect]
is for questions about when to use the past tense versus the past perfect tense
210
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English's imperfect tense and its imperfection
It just occurred to me that in English, when we use what Spanish would refer to as the "imperfect tense", we are actually adding a mode of termination to the action. Whereas in Spanish, there is no ...
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When I was in Tokyo, I [saw] or [had seen] the movie three times?
I'm pretty confused here as to why [saw] is preferred in the sentences below.
When I was in Tokyo, I saw the movie three times.
When I was in Tokyo, I had seen the movie three times.
I'm not ...
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Why is the Past Perfect not used here?
A quote from The Innocents Abroad, by Mark Twain:
A devout lady who died, left money and contracted for unlimited masses
for the repose of her soul, and also stipulated that this lamp should
be ...
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Difference between “he kissed me” and “he had kissed me”
I believe, I understand what is difference between the past simple tense and the past perfect tense. As per my knowledge, we use the past perfect tense to show the much old action in the past when two ...
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Why would you use the past perfect here?
It seems like I am caught between tenses again. I watched a youtube video and heard the speaker say:
I could imagine that even the earliest human beings had asked themselves the questions: "Why am ...
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What should I say "Had Happened" Or "happened"?
Due to some reason I could not completed my task yesterday. Is it correct to say Today that?
I really don't Know what had happened to me. I could not complete my task yesterday.
or only simple past ...
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Past progressive for a finished event
It was Friday, the first day of our skiing holiday, and my friend Jason and I __________ down the mountain together. We wanted to catch the ski lift back down to our hotel.
I answered had been skiing,...
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Why does a sentence start with Past Perfect but continue in Past Simple?
Please have a look at this extract from an interview, the question was:
What was it that made you want to choose the drums?
The Blind Baron asked me if I was interested in learning and I took ...
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"because I'd been working late" vs. "because I worked late"
I was really tired because I had been working late the night before.
I want to show cause and effect. If I say instead
I was really tired because I worked late the night before.
does that change ...
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The difference between past tense and had pp?
Less well known at the time was the fact that Freud had found out, almost by accident, how helpful his pet dog Jofi was to his patients. He had become a doglover in later life when Jofi was given to ...
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Is the sentence "You wouldn't know if he did" grammatical/idiomatic?
Google gives you 0 results so I'm a bit skeptic.
Example sentence:
Speaker A: "My husband has never lied to me."
Speaker B: “You wouldn’t know if he did.”
(Meaning that Speaker A wouldn't ...
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past perfect with 'when' [duplicate]
Alice walked to the door when the doorbell rang
Alice walked to the door when the doorbell had rung
In (1) it is clear in which order the actions occured. The doorbell rang. Then, Alice walked to ...
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Past Perfect Continuous vs Past Simple
My teacher says that it's not correct to answer the test
"How long (rain) yesterday?"
as "How long did it rain yesterday?"
She says there is only one way to do the problem with "how long" in the past ...
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3
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You had chickened out?
Let's say you didn't say what you have to say in a meeting, which took place in the past.(the idiom I decided to use is 'chicken out')
Then, your friend had told you this:
I thought you needed to ...
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This is the watch that I (have/had/--) lost. -- what's the difference?
I've got a sentence on a learner's site, "This is the watch that I had lost" and now it's puzzling me. What's the rule to use the Past Perfect here? And why should I use specifically this tense?
It's ...
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using perfect tense before "before"
He abided by all the rules that were explained to him before the programme.
He abided by all the rules that had been explained to him before the programme.
What is the difference b/w the two ...
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"You would not have got the flu if you {ate/had eaten} more fruit." - what is the difference?
You would not have got the flu if you ate more fruit
You would not have got the flu if you had eaten more fruit
What is the difference between these two sentences?
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past verb vs has/have been when they are used?
I would like to use past sentences, however, I cannot figure the different between have/has been and the past verbs. We can write a past sentences using both (as I understand). For example, which one ...
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He had left before you came
He had left before you came.
He left before you came.
Are the timelines same?
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2
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Is past simple valid in this case
Yesterday, when I was using a printer, it suddenly turned off in the
middle of printing. I was surprised and pushed the power button many
times, but it never turned on again. I realized that it ...
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"no one was killed or wounded" vs. "no one had been killed or wounded" [duplicate]
Source:
The Ukrainian army on Saturday reported 11 attacks on its positions in the past 24 hours but no one was killed or wounded.
If I change was to had been, how will the meaning be affected?
...
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Which one is more correct "had been stabbed" or "was stabbed"?
Can we report the matter as below?
Which one is more correct by using Simple past (was stabbed) or Past perfect (had been stabbed)?
Four persons were arrested by the police on Tuesday for the ...
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If Didn't vs hadn't
SOURCE (Fan fiction)
I was reading a novel and saw this sentence:
"If you did not question that, I wouldn't have picked you."
Why isn't it "If you had not questioned that, I ...
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"Past perfect progressive" vs "past progressive"- Can we use the adverbial phrases of time with past progressive?
I know one of the main differences between past perfect progressive and past progressive is the fact that the latter can be used when the duration of an event or its exact timing is not important to ...
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Why "I hadn't noticed" instead of "I didn't notice"/"I haven't notice"?
I see that I hadn't noticed is commonly used by native speakers, more than the pair I didn't notice and I haven't noticed ,in the following example
People are being more careful nowadays, don't you ...
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4
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Should I use past perfect for these sentences?
1) Two days after I went to school, I got sick (Two days after I had gone to school, I got sick)
2) I went to school two days ago, and I got sick (I had gone to school two days ago, and I got sick)
...
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2
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“She played for a while” vs "She had played for a while"
Some time in the summer of 1981 Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon and Lee
Ranaldo collided in NYC's Lower East Side and formed Sonic Youth.
At the age of 18 Thurston had travelled from Connecticut to live ...
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Past perfect for two simultaneous events "Her business had proved that it was possible to be sustainable and profitable at the same time."
Could anyone please explain me why we use past perfect instead of past simple before “that” in the sentence below? As I understand, we use past perfect in a sequence of events to show that the action ...
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Why not Past Perfect: "For a Muslim hacking collective ..., which previously disabled the ... service last month, it was “challenge accepted”
From the INDEPENDENT news "Muslim activists hack Isis mailing list hours after terrorists claimed it was unhackable" (highlighting by myself):
After numerous cyber attacks and official takedowns ...
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Should I include the second had in "Had he died like Nietzsche **had** declared?"
Even without a speck of cloud, I couldn’t spot God. Had he died like
Nietzsche had said/declared?
(This is first-person narration past tense. And Nietzsche, a dead philosopher, said that statement ...
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Past Perfect vs Past Simple are they interchangeable in this sentence?
Well, I have a sentence that confuses me a little bit because I don't know which tense would be the best in this case.
Here's the sentence:
When I woke up I realized that I had overslept. As it ...
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"He had a gun." or "He has had a gun."
What is the difference between the sentences
He had a gun.
and
He has had a gun.
I think when you are saying about the past why don't you just say it as
"He had a gun" instead of ...
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Is the usage of tenses correct in this sentence - "two days had passed since she had last eaten or slept"
Two days had passed since she had last eaten or slept.
Or should it be:
Two days have passed since she last ate or slept.
Or something else? And why? The combinatorial explosion of past simple, ...
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Past perfect or past simple with before
Example 1
I've lived here all my life, and I've been through quakes before. But this one felt different — not because of how big it was, but because of all the bad things that happened ...
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Questions related to tense
I am kind of confused....
Are the two sentences below the same?
Let’s pretend that none of this had ever/never happened.
Let’s pretend that none of this have ever/never happened.
If it’s different, ...
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Can I use only past simple in this sentence?
I have a sentence which I think is fine. But maybe I should change the second part from past simple to past perfect. It’s an entry on my website.
July 2015: I organised my first family camp in ...
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Have I read the novel if I've forgotten the story?
Imagine the following scenario:
I read a novel two years ago. Today I cannot remember the story of the novel any more, I've forgotten the story. Somebody asks me:
Have you read the novel?
...
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It had been a long time since + Past Perfect or Past Simple
I would like to know which one is correct when the structure refers to a past event.
Past Perfect + Past Simple -
It had been a long time since I met her.
Past Perfect + Past Perfect -
It had ...
doggo
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If you came [had come] tomorrow, I might be [have been] able to help you.
I would like to know which of the following sentences is correct.
If you had come tomorrow, I might have been able to help you.
If you came tomorrow, I might be able to help you.
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Should I use Past Perfect or Past Simple here?
Which one of the following sentences is grammatically correct and why?
She baked а cake, but he had eaten it before you came.
She had baked a cake, but he had eaten it before you came.
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I had forgotten: past perfect without time references
Let's say I'm with some people, and they show me something that once I knew. Would it be correct to say:
Ah! I had forgotten about that!
My concern is whether the past perfect can be used or not, ...
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Why Past Perfect in "He had persuaded himself that the festivities were barbaric, and he made up his mind that he..."?
The result was that Philip had nowhere to go, and he spent Christmas Day in his lodgings. Under Hayward's influence he had persuaded himself that the festivities that attend this season were vulgar ...
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Should this reported speech use "was" or "had been" to convert "was"?
When you have a sentence in the direct speech talking about someone’s age such as “a producer discovered me when I was 13”
How does it change into the reported speech?
he said a producer had ...
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Every time we (had) moved, we started from scratch
I'm not sure whether I use double past simple or past perfect + past simple in this sentence:
Every time we had moved, we started from scratch.
vs
Every time we moved, we started from scratch.
...
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Use of tenses (Past Simple vs Past Perfect)
Getting ready for the test I found this task
The lucky coincidence allowed them to take a trip together and Angela loved traveling! More than that, she ________ (prepare) a list of the most ...
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I -/Have/Had Never Thought Of That?
I am currently a bit confused about the difference between these 3 phrases:
I have never thought of that. (present perfect)
I had never thought of that. (past perfect)
I never thought of that. (past ...
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why don't we use "beV" in the sentence with 'find'
We can say
He came out and found his car stolen.
Why don't we say
He came out and found his car was stolen.
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Relation between the events in the past
I wanted to known, what are the options I have to define the concurrent events in the past.
For this purpose let's consider a context, A person first came down by the stairs and then talked to me. And ...
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Explain saw and have seen
I met a coworker at a bar and I said "I saw you last week at the gas station".
He replied with "I have seen you too but didn't want to bother you."
Why didn't he use "I saw you too..."?
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I was happy because I (had) passed my final exam
Is this sentence correct:
I was happy because I passed my final exam.
Or is it better to use the Past Perfect:
I was happy because I had passed my final exam.
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