Past perfect tense

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Past perfect tense

by Stockmoose16 » Wed Oct 29, 2008 9:11 am
Which of the following sentences is grammatically correct?

Jody went to the market and bought some shoes (simple past)

Jody had gone to the market and bought some shoes (past perfect)

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by logitech » Wed Oct 29, 2008 9:13 am
Can you buy shoes first and go to market after ? ;-)

PAST PERFECT tense is used when you want to explain what happened first in the past. In this sentence, it is clear that you went to shop and bought shoes.
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by Stockmoose16 » Wed Oct 29, 2008 9:22 am
logitech wrote:Can you buy shoes first and go to market after ? ;-)

PAST PERFECT tense is used when you want to explain what happened first in the past. In this sentence, it is clear that you went to shop and bought shoes.
Uh, that's not how past perfect works. My sentence is saying that you went to the market first (since the past perfect verb is used) then you bought the shoes.

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by uttara » Wed Oct 29, 2008 10:44 am
Jody went to the market and bought some shoes (simple past)

Jody had gone to the market and bought some shoes (past perfect)
I think both the sentences are wrong as they fail to answer whether Jody bought the shoes when she had gone to the market or not.

we need to add 'while' or 'when' to convey the relationship wrt time between the two events and also need to use past perfect for the event which started first:

ie
While Jody had gone to the market, she bought some shoes.
or
Jody had gone to the market, when she bought some shoes.
or
Jody bought some shoes when she had gone to the market.

When/While joi

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by Stockmoose16 » Wed Oct 29, 2008 10:46 am
uttara wrote:
Jody went to the market and bought some shoes (simple past)

Jody had gone to the market and bought some shoes (past perfect)
I think both the sentences are wrong as they fail to answer whether Jody bought the shoes when she had gone to the market or not.

we need to add 'while' or 'when' to convey the relationship wrt time between the two events and also need to use past perfect for the event which started first:

ie
While Jody had gone to the market, she bought some shoes.
or
Jody had gone to the market, when she bought some shoes.
or
Jody bought some shoes when she had gone to the market.

When/While joi
One of the original sentences is correct. I'm sure of that.

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by niraj_a » Wed Oct 29, 2008 12:52 pm
it depends on what you want the sentence to mean -

1) jody could have bought the shoes on a trip other than on her market trip

2) this one specifically identifies that she went to the market first and only then bought the shoes

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by stop@800 » Wed Oct 29, 2008 1:39 pm
I think had is wrong here.
It makes no sense.

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by Stockmoose16 » Wed Oct 29, 2008 1:42 pm
stop@800 wrote:I think had is wrong here.
It makes no sense.
Why do think it makes no sense? "Had" clarifies that Jody first went to the market and THEN bought shoes, in that order.

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by logitech » Wed Oct 29, 2008 5:42 pm
Stockmoose16 wrote:
logitech wrote:Can you buy shoes first and go to market after ? ;-)

PAST PERFECT tense is used when you want to explain what happened first in the past. In this sentence, it is clear that you went to shop and bought shoes.
Uh, that's not how past perfect works. My sentence is saying that you went to the market first (since the past perfect verb is used) then you bought the shoes.
How does the "past perfect" work then ?

This is what I explained:

PAST PERFECT -------------- SIMPLE PAST ---------------- NOW

Some people say: KISS meaning, KEEP IT SIMPLE STUPID!

Only use past perfect if you NEED to..so I woke up and washed my face.

Is there anything wrong here ?

OR You want to say

I had woken up and washed my face


:lol:
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by Bidisha800 » Wed Oct 29, 2008 7:04 pm
This discussion is indeed very entertaining.
Drill baby drill !

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by logitech » Wed Oct 29, 2008 7:51 pm
Bidisha800 wrote:This discussion is indeed very entertaining.
:lol:

We can not be serious all the time Bidisha. There is always time for some fun! :D
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by vivek.kapoor83 » Wed Oct 29, 2008 11:47 pm

Emphasis is on,if the action has been completed or not...



Note the difference in meaning between these two sentences:
The Civil War had ended when Lincoln was shot. = The war was over by the time of Lincoln’s death.
The Civil War ended when Lincoln was shot. = The war ended when Lincoln died

So, if u went to market and bought something, u r still in market, action is still not completed. So,'had' will not be there.

Hope it helps !!!
Wht is the rite sentence.

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by amitabhprasad » Thu Oct 30, 2008 7:18 am
My 2 cents :)
One thing to remember with past perfect is; If more then one action in the sentence occurred at different times in the past, we should use past perfect for the earlier action and simple past for the later action.
If there is no time difference we should stick with simple past for both actions.
Going by this
Jody went to the market and bought some shoes --> should be correct.

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by vivek.kapoor83 » Fri Oct 31, 2008 10:06 am
The rule of past perfect applies when one action is completed and second action follows it. Now, as explained above, u r in the market and buying shoes, two actions are occuring parallely. So, it is correct as explained above,

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by Stacey Koprince » Fri Oct 31, 2008 11:47 am
I received a PM asking me to comment.

Yes, as some posters have said, past perfect is used when the two past events are separated in time. Generally speaking, the "past perfect" event has to occur in the past relative to a "simple past" event or point in time. The later-in-time item can be literally a point in time, such as a date, or it can be an event that is referred to via the simple past tense.

In the original two example sentences, we have a compound verb:

Jody went... and (Jody) bought...
or
Jody had gone and (Jody had) bought...

Notice that I repeated the "had" in the second sentence. With this structure, the implication is that both Jody and had are repeated before the second verb (bought)... so this one's not correct simply because it's using only past perfect, with no "later in time in the past" event or point in time as a reference point.

If we want to debate whether the "had" should be repeated... at the very least, it's ambiguous as to whether the intent is "Jody bought" or "Jody had bought" - and ambiguity makes for a bad sentence.

You could say:
Jody had already gone to the market when she bought the shoes. Meaning: sometime earlier (earlier the same day? The day before? I don't know), Jody went to the market. After that (but still in the past), she bought some shoes.

If you are trying to say that Jody bought the shoes at the market, then you'd more logically say something like:
Jody went to the market to buy shoes. (though this is ambiguous as to whether she did buy the shoes)
or
Jody bought shoes at the market.
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