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TENSE related - one basic question

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by gmattarget700 » Mon Jul 06, 2009 2:24 pm
Because Joe was wearing a helmet when he was struck on the head by a falling coconut ten years ago, he .... serious injury in that episode.

what would be fit to complete the sentence (in blank space): "escaped" or "had escaped"?

MGMAT says: the verb has to be in simple past (so, escaped) as escape occurred at a specific time in the past.:
Because Joe was wearing a helmet when he was struck on the head by a falling coconut ten years ago, he ESCAPED serious injury in that episode.


Does that mean that if I remove the time context then I can use, past perfect? :
Because Joe was wearing a helmet when he was struck on the head by a falling coconut, he HAD ESCAPED serious injury in that episode.
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Re: TENSE related - one basic question

by dumb.doofus » Mon Jul 06, 2009 3:10 pm
gmattarget700 wrote:Because Joe was wearing a helmet when he was struck on the head by a falling coconut ten years ago, he .... serious injury in that episode.

what would be fit to complete the sentence (in blank space): "escaped" or "had escaped"?

MGMAT says: the verb has to be in simple past (so, escaped) as escape occurred at a specific time in the past.:
Because Joe was wearing a helmet when he was struck on the head by a falling coconut ten years ago, he ESCAPED serious injury in that episode.


Does that mean that if I remove the time context then I can use, past perfect? :
Because Joe was wearing a helmet when he was struck on the head by a falling coconut, he HAD ESCAPED serious injury in that episode.
How can Joe escape injury before he was struck on the head by falling coconut?

so the sequence of events is
1. Joe was wearing a helmet
2. He was struck with coconut
3 He escaped injury.

That's why you can't use "had" here.. and need to use simple past..
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by gmattarget700 » Mon Jul 06, 2009 5:11 pm
Thanks.

So you mean, below is Wrong:
"Because Joe was wearing a helmet when he was struck on the head by a falling coconut, he HAD ESCAPED serious injury in that episode."

I was going with the rule as MGMAT mentioned: "as escape occurred at a specific time in the past"...and so my understanding was that taking away context of "ten years ago" would make it use past perfect.

Can you little elaborate the rule you mentioned?

And, also, if you can rephrase the same sentence, using past perfect...

Thanks again....
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by dumb.doofus » Mon Jul 06, 2009 6:37 pm
gmattarget700 wrote:Thanks.

So you mean, below is Wrong:
"Because Joe was wearing a helmet when he was struck on the head by a falling coconut, he HAD ESCAPED serious injury in that episode."

I was going with the rule as MGMAT mentioned: "as escape occurred at a specific time in the past"...and so my understanding was that taking away context of "ten years ago" would make it use past perfect.

Can you little elaborate the rule you mentioned?

And, also, if you can rephrase the same sentence, using past perfect...

Thanks again....
Yes the sentence is wrong..

there's just one rule here.. you need to check the sequence of events.. if two events occur in the past and one of them occurs before the other one, then we use past perfect to describe the one that has occurred at the earliest and not latest

In this sentence He couldn't have got injured before the coconut hit him so that's why a simple past..

How to make this as past perfect? well,

Joe escaped serious injury when he was struck on the head by a falling coconut because he was wearing the same helmet that his father had given him on his b'day.
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