Experts Need Suggestion on past perfect

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Chaitanya_1986: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 183; Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2011 11:29 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 7 times

by Chaitanya_1986 » Thu May 12, 2011 8:35 am

Acc to MGMAT SC Book, we should not use past perfect when we have words like AFTER or BEFORE in the sentences because we know which event occurred first and which event occurred last.....But i have seen some problems where even if we have AFTER and BEFORE the past perfect HAD is used....Why this is so???

Can any one explain....Sorry i could not get the Question now...But will get that.....

Do we have any exception for this rule??? or this is a generalized rule???

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Thu May 12, 2011 8:35 am

atulmangal: Legendary Member; Posts: 1112; Joined: Sat Feb 26, 2011 11:16 amFollowed by: 49 members; Thanked: 77 times

by atulmangal » Thu May 12, 2011 9:47 am

Chaitanya_1986 wrote:Acc to MGMAT SC Book, we should not use past perfect when we have words like AFTER or BEFORE in the sentences because we know which event occurred first and which event occurred last.....But i have seen some problems where even if we have AFTER and BEFORE the past perfect HAD is used....Why this is so???

Can any one explain....Sorry i could not get the Question now...But will get that.....

Do we have any exception for this rule??? or this is a generalized rule???

Brother, are you sure, you read correct?? if so, can you please provide me the page no??? why i'm asking this:

watch out this link:

https://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/pastperfect.html

It shows the cases when past perfect is optional when "before" or "after" is used in the sentence.

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Chaitanya_1986: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 183; Joined: Sat Apr 16, 2011 11:29 amFollowed by: 2 members; Thanked: 7 times

by Chaitanya_1986 » Thu May 12, 2011 9:51 am

Page No 110 , Chapter 7 , 3rd paragraph......

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rohu27: Legendary Member; Posts: 586; Joined: Tue Jan 19, 2010 4:38 amFollowed by: 5 members; Thanked: 31 times; GMAT Score:730

by rohu27 » Thu May 12, 2011 10:37 am

i guess MGMAT only says that it is unecessary, not tht it cannot be used. correct me if im rong.
i have also seen questions where had is used with after and before, thought not sure if any official questions use it.

Have time? https://www.beatthegmat.com/730-q-50-v40 ... 88058.html

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John Besore: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 31; Joined: Fri Nov 05, 2010 5:28 amFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 7 times

by John Besore » Thu May 12, 2011 11:46 am

From what I understand, we should use past perfect tense to establish or clarify the sequencing between two events that took place in the past tense. Now if the context of the sentence is such that the sequencing is pretty clear, then the use of past perfect tense is optional. For example, if there are other words such as "before" or "after", we can either use simple past tense or past perfect tense. I do not think that we will be asked to choose between these two correct verb tenses.

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bubbliiiiiiii: Legendary Member; Posts: 979; Joined: Tue Apr 14, 2009 1:38 amFollowed by: 12 members; Location: Hyderabad, India; Thanked: 49 times; GMAT Score:700

by bubbliiiiiiii » Thu May 12, 2011 10:38 pm

I agree that AFTER and BEFORE signify the sequence of events.

Suppose X and Y are two events,

AFTER X, Y.

Then the usage of past perfect tense doesnot make sence.

What if,

After X, A had B.

Mean, A and B are two events that happened after X. But if we were to signify the order of events between A and B, then in that case we might need 'had'.

Open for discussion.

Experts guidance needed.

Regards,

Pranay

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Jim@Grockit: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 641; Joined: Wed Jul 22, 2009 3:07 pmFollowed by: 45 members; Location: Madison, WI; Thanked: 162 times; GMAT Score:760

by Jim@Grockit » Sun May 15, 2011 4:34 pm

I don't have my OG in front of me, but I feel certain I've seen past perfect + AFTER (or other time markers, such as LAST WEEK) in the CR and RC sections. All signs point to the past perfect being optional when time sequence is marked in some other way; that is definitely the way it works in "real English".

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