Sentence Correction

The company announced that ts profits declined much less in the second quarter than analysts had expected it to and its business will improve in the second half of the year.

a. same
b. had expected and that its business would improve
c. expected it would and that it will impove its business
d. expected them to and its business would improve
e. expected and that it will have improved its business

How is one to know when to use HAD expected? What is the real difference between expected and had expected?

Why is would better than will (difference between A&B). DOnt they expect that profits WILL improve?

Had expected, signifies past perfect tense, whereas expected is simple past tense...
Rule # 1... Keep all tense forms same(simple, perfect, progressive) in the sentence unless you are forced to do...
Rule # 2... Use different tense forms only when you want to differentiate the time of occurrence between to events...

Enginpasa1 wrote:The company announced that ts profits declined much less in the second quarter than analysts had expected it to and its business will improve in the second half of the year.

a. same
b. had expected and that its business would improve
c. expected it would and that it will impove its business
d. expected them to and its business would improve
e. expected and that it will have improved its business

How is one to know when to use HAD expected? What is the real difference between expected and had expected?

Why is would better than will (difference between A&B). DOnt they expect that profits WILL improve?

We have multiple actions in this sentence. "Announced" is in the non-underlined part, and is therefore correct. "Expected" is in the underlined part, so we can modify it to match the rest of the sentence.

Now we ask ourselves "in what order did the actions occur?" The analysts expectation took place before the announcement. Therefore, "expect" has to be in an earlier tense than the simple past. Accordingly, we use the past perfect and add "had" in front.

I am pushing the brake pedal on the amount of questions I do- and stepping on the gas on with the analyzing of my mistakes. I also spent the afternoon doing extensive grammar lessons that made life much much easier. (some professional advice)

so i hope I boiled this down correctly: the company announced therefore the sales slump happened before that. This gave me reason to choose a or b. Now I need to choose between a and b. I can see the difference between WILL and WOULD but I dont know which one would be right? any help on step 2?

Enginpasa1 wrote:I am pushing the brake pedal on the amount of questions I do- and stepping on the gas on with the analyzing of my mistakes. I also spent the afternoon doing extensive grammar lessons that made life much much easier. (some professional advice)

so i hope I boiled this down correctly: the company announced therefore the sales slump happened before that. This gave me reason to choose a or b. Now I need to choose between a and b. I can see the difference between WILL and WOULD but I dont know which one would be right? any help on step 2?

"profits" is plural, so "it" in choice (a) is wrong: choose (b)

I understand the plurality of the matter however.. the verb tense has me stumped. I am often choosing HAD when I should have chosen the simple past. where can i look for more information.