Questions tagged [past-vs-past-perfect]
is for questions about when to use the past tense versus the past perfect tense
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"by the time" and past simple
In a museum I saw this sentence, I was a bit surprised
By the time the letter was posted, the children were already dead.
Is it correct? I would write The children had been dead.
What is the ...
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"had said" vs. "said" -- are these sometimes interchangeable?
Example with a context (British 'severed heads' jihadi jailed for 12 years):
Imran Khawaja, 27, of Southall, west London, traveled to a training camp in Syria in January last year and joined Rayat ...
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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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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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'was' versus 'had been'
When I asked the driver/ to come with me to the temple/ he had been reluctant./ No error.
I think instead of 'had been', there should be 'was'. Even the answer key points that the error is in the 'he ...
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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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present perfect or past simple
Is it possible to write
I have woken up very early today because I don't want to miss my favourite Tv show
or
I woke up very early today because I don't want to miss my favourite tv show
In ...
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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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Converting the past into reported speech
My grammar book says that if somebody says to me something and he uses the past tense, I can report his speech using either the past or past perfect. (In the first case I don't change the tense at all....
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