Verb tenses, find the error !

Expert replies

jainpiyushjain: Senior | Next Rank: 100 Posts; Posts: 44; Joined: Sun Jun 13, 2010 3:07 amFollowed by: 3 members; Location: Bahrain; Thanked: 5 times; GMAT Score:720

by jainpiyushjain » Fri Mar 29, 2013 9:04 pm

Hello

I came across this sentence in a verb tense exercise of a GMAT reviews handbook.

Q. Is the below sentence correctly written ?

The old gymnasium was abandoned until a real estate consortium bought the facility and renovated it.

OA Correct

My question is shouldn't we use past perfect to indicate that the gym was abandoned prior to the real estate consortium buying the facility. [/spoiler]

Like this post

Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Fri Mar 29, 2013 9:04 pm

GMAT/MBA Expert

Brent@GMATPrepNow: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 16207; Joined: Mon Dec 08, 2008 6:26 pmFollowed by: 1268 members; Location: Vancouver, BC; Thanked: 5254 times; GMAT Score:770

by Brent@GMATPrepNow » Sat Mar 30, 2013 5:25 am

If the order of the past events is obvious, then we don't necessarily need to use past perfect tense.
Consider this example: Gary baked a cake and served it to his family.

Here, we have two actions that occurred in the past, and we can tell from the context that the baking occurred before the serving. So, it would seem that we should use the past perfect tense and write: Gary had baked a cake and served it to his family.

Now it isn't grammatically incorrect to write Gary had baked a cake and served it to his family, but it isn't necessary to do so since we can tell from the context that the baking must have occurred before the serving.

So, if the order of the actions is 100% obvious, we need not use the past perfect tense. Now there's no perfect rule for determining whether or not the order of certain actions is 100% obvious, so it is highly unlikely that you would ever need to determine this on a test.

What you do need to know is that, if an action is expressed in the past perfect tense form, then that action must have been completed before some other action was completed in the past.

Cheers,
Brent

Brent Hanneson - Creator of GMATPrepNow.com

Like this post

Post new topic Locked

• Page 1 of 1

GMAT Course Reviews

559 reviews

1168 reviews

431 reviews

359 reviews

147 reviews

5/5

5 Star (560 Reviews)

"Target Test Prep is the closest to the official version of the GMAT exam, about 99% accuracy in terms of the quality and quantity of information. The course has excellently created singular sets of focused lessons and tests for every possible topic that one could come across in the official GMAT exam."

"The TTP course maximizes the efficiency of the time you spend studying. It will take time and effort but I could almost guarantee that if you complete the course exactly as it is laid out you will get an amazing score. They also have a very responsive team willing to help with any questions you might have."

"TTP has two things that I think no other test prep company offers: A teaching approach that reinforces understanding and an attitude that will give you the mental preparedness needed to succeed on the test. TTP gives you a deep understanding of the concept you need to know while teaching you how to think."

Write a Review