Serious problems with the tense "had"

BREAKING: Target Test Prep releases Brand New 2026 On Demand GMAT prep course

Redeem

This topic has expert replies

Post new topic Locked

Previous Topic Next Topic

daphyy: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 9; Joined: Sun Oct 05, 2008 8:52 am

Serious problems with the tense "had"

by daphyy » Thu Nov 27, 2008 2:33 am

Hey, I was wondering if anyone could offer tricks for figuring out the correct tense in SC. I'm having serious problems with "had", I seem to miss problems with this every time .. maybe cuz I'm not a native speaker..sighs. I can't figure out what happened before or after or if it's ongoing..

Help!

Quote

Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Thu Nov 27, 2008 2:33 am

hanuljhamb: Newbie | Next Rank: 10 Posts; Posts: 1; Joined: Wed Nov 26, 2008 9:57 pm; Location: Delhi; Thanked: 1 times

by hanuljhamb » Thu Nov 27, 2008 10:49 pm

Hi Dapphy,

The usage of 'had' is done in sentences where-in there are 2 depending sentences. Eg.:

"when he had gone to school, the postman arrived."

which says that postman arrived when he was not available. We cant say - the postman had arrived, when he went to school. THis will give a totally different meaning.
So take it as a rule, chose 'had' only when there are 2 depending sents.

Else in other cases has is used. like:
"He has gone to school".

We cant use had in above case alone. we can only used it when we say it with some other depending sentence.

I hope it has not confusd you even more.

Do let me know !!