Questions tagged [past-vs-past-perfect]
is for questions about when to use the past tense versus the past perfect tense
209
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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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What is the difference between "had engaged", "had been engaged", and "were engaged" in this context?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi disclosed on Saturday that the registration of over 1 lakh companies which had allegedly engaged in suspicious transactions post demonetisation had been scrapped as he ...
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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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2
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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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Is this use of the past perfect continuous right?
I was tired after the test last Friday, because I had been studying all day long every day for a week.
Is the use of the past perfect continuous I had been studying in the sentence above right? He ...
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I had studied English since' I saw my teacher'. or 'since I had seen my teacher'?
What is the right expression between two sentences?
I had studied English since I saw my English teacher.
I had studied English since I had seen my English teacher.
I want to know which is ...
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2
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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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How & When to change tense in Reporting Speech?
From the Times of India:
Father of a 16-year-old girl has alleged that her daughter was raped and impregnated by Chandankumar Yadav of Ramol who promised to marry her.
It is not clear from this ...
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Completed Action/ final condition / final state of action / Event at that time in Reporting Speech?
The past perfect is used to communicate an event completed before another event in the past.
But in newspaper I read in some news that past perfect and simple past is being used to communicate the ...
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"We can really do what [we were]/[we've been] pretending to do"
Which one is right out of the following?
We can really do what we were pretending to do
We can really do what we've been pretending to do
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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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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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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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"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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What did you eat or what have you eat?
If I am asking someone what he got for his birthday, would it be
"What did you get?"
or
"What have you got?"
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past simple & past perfect
What is the difference between using the simple past in two parts of the sentence and using the past simple in one part and the past perfect in the other part. For example:
"As soon as the light ...
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Is the Past Perfect required in every case, where the action was competed before? [duplicate]
I know that in English we can sometimes "skip" the Present Perfect and use the Past Simple, like here:
John has won the election. Appropriate sort of the next day of the election night, when the ...
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1
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Difference between the "have been" and "was" [closed]
An example, I want to say that I was at the zoo. How should I say that?
"I was at the zoo" or "I have been at the zoo"
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1
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What is the difference between "what had been" and "what was" in this quote?
This is a quote I got when reading Pride and Prejudice.
Elizabeth could never address her without feeling that all the comfort of intimacy was over, and though determined not to slacken as a ...
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2
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He "left" a comment on website this morning vs "had left"
I'm confusing the past simple and the past perfect, particularly in following case; I don't know which one do I have to use.
Ms. Koo, one of our regular customers, (left / had left) a question ...
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was working vs had been working
I am going to make up two similar sentences.
(1) I didn't have time to do anything else because I was working on my project.
(2) I didn't have time to do anything else because I had been working on ...
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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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2
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Have have been had had been
How should I say
I found a shirt in a drawer and i remembered I put it away three years ago but I'm gonna use it from now on.
The shirt has slept in a drawer for three years.
The shirt has been ...
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188
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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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1
answer
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Which sentence is more appropriate to express my idea?
If I want to express that I practiced my spoken English every day last summer, which of the following sentences is more appropriate?
I practiced my spoken English throughout last summer.
I was ...
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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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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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had proposed or proposed?
In the following paragraph, is it better to use 'had proposed the extended warranty' or 'proposed the extended warranty'?
If the customer doesn’t want to pay and maliciously blows us off to try and ...
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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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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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1
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Difference between 'How long have you learned' and 'How long ago did you learn'?
I read the following sentence in an English book :
How long have you learned Maths?
I wonder if the question below
How long ago did you learn Maths?
has the same meaning with the first ...
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Use of tense for past event
My colleague was not at his desk hence I received his call and replied. After one hour he returned to his desk and now I want to tell him about that call
How do I tell him?
Xyz had called you.
...
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0
answers
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Using the Past Simple with the "in the last" expression
Almost half of the people who bought a vinyl record in the
last 12 months did so after hearing on a streaming site
Since the expression "in the last 12 months" includes the current moment of time,...
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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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2
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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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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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"have had" and "had had" for possession
I want to make sure how to use perfect tenses (past and present) with have for possession:
Suppose I bought a car a few month ago and I sold it today. Can I say:
I have had a red car for a few ...
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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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When should we use Until?
I had never traveled outside my country until I went to Disney World last summer
or
I never traveled outside my country until I had gone to Disney World last summer
Until is followed by past ...
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2
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Two questions are about past perfect
There are 2 questions which the answer key says I'm wrong.
First:
By the time he was applying / he'd applied, the job had already gone.
I think it should be "he was applying"
Second:
She ...
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Past perfect tense [duplicate]
When she had entered the room, she found him laid on the floor with the box in his right hand.
She had entered the room and found him laid on the floor with the box in his right hand.
She entered the ...
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Choice of tense and meaning in "My friend considered going to an event where X came (had come?)" [duplicate]
My friend considered going to an event to see X.
Now if I wanted to convey a similar meaning, which of the sentences below would you suggest I use? And what's the difference between the two?
My ...
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simple past vs past perfect [duplicate]
Scenario
I sent my person to our client's site but the client's office was closed. Two days later he called me to enquire about the visit.
Which tense should I use. Past perfect or simple past? ...
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1
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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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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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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 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 I use "didn't" or "hadn't" in the following case?
This is past-tense narrative:
Since the violin didn't fit his backpack, he'd been carrying it on his
shoulder the whole morning.
Since the violin hadn't fit his backpack, he'd been carrying ...
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When I had opened the door, children ran in
1. When I had opened the door, children ran in.
2. When I had written my letter, I did some gardening.
In the first sentence the usage of past perfect is not allegedly necessary. Why? Both sentences ...
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Why is another "had" omitted in "if my lord had the food, he would have shared it"?
I watched sadly as my lord Garridan looked out at the withered fields before him from his meager stone keep and cursed the luck that tainted the skies and stopped the rain from falling. The families ...
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