ATLAST I GOT IT


THANK U SO MUCH.............

FROM TODAY I AM STARTING THE PREVIOUS MGMAT QUESTIONS OF THE BEAT THE GMAT, IF IN ANY QUESTION PROBLEM ARISES HOW TO CONTACT U FOR THE EXPLANATION FOR THE SAME?

CAN I JUST POST THE QUERRY IN YOUR NAME, WILL U EASILY FIND IT?

THANKS AGAIN FOR SO WONDERFUL EXPLANATION..............

Thanks a Million lunarpower. This is the BEST article I've come across which nails this topic !
Thanks to all the MGMAT instructors for extremely useful articles!!!

lunarpower wrote:

1. In 1976, 60% of families were couples with children. - Simple past
2. By 1996, this had fallen to 51%. - Past perfect

this is correct.

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i feel your pain here, because you're confusing two completely different uses of the word "had".

one use of "had" is the PAST TENSE of the infinitive "TO HAVE". (let's call this "had1")
this is like other past tenses, such as "was", "chose", "ran", "threw".

another is the PAST PARTICIPLE of the infinitive "TO HAVE". (let's call this "had2")
this is like other past participles, such as "been", "chosen", "run", "thrown".

the other is as a HELPING VERB that appears in the PAST PERFECT. (let's call this "had3")

here's how "to have" is conjugated:
present: he has the flu.
past: he had the flu. (this is had1)
past perfect: he had had the flu. (this is had3 had2)

analogy: some other random verb, such as "to choose"
present: he chooses the steak entree.
past: he chose the steak entree.
past perfect: he had chosen the steak entree. (this is had3)

the difficulty here lies in not confusing the different "had"s.

hope that helps

Hey Ron ,

Thanks for the explanations . I hope I have understood the explanation in the right way .

Can we have an example when 'Though he has had' is correct ?
That might put things into perspective.

This one tough to understand.

lunarpower wrote:

siddharth rastogi wrote:RON,thanks again

Though he had had success broadcasting his controversial radio program on highly regulated terrestrial airwaves, Howard Stern opted out of terrestrial broadcasting in favor of the less regulated satellite radio medium.

a. Though he had had
b. Though he has had
c. Even though he had
d. Having had
e. Having achieved


RON, though is used to contrast one event say 1 to the other say 2

But in the above sentence I am not able to get the real contrast.

If the person hadhad sucess in terrestrial airwaves( 1)
Why ( THOUGH IS USED)contrast is showed to say that he opted again terrestrial brodcasting ?

the second clause says that he "OPTED OUT". this mean that he QUIT terrestrial broadcasting.

given that he had previously enjoyed success, this is indeed a contrast.

i thought that when the subject is the same and the sequence is clear, then we don't need to use two different tenses. therefore i went with c). but this was unfortunately the wrong choice!

any advice on this?

thx

We use Past perfect when we want to show a transition from one time frame to another frame
e.g.Before you asked me to stop him, Howard had left for the meeting... here we want to show transition to show act of leaving happened first.

BUT in the question we are stating a fact then why we need Past Perfect, PAST tense should suffice. Consider following sentences, do you think there is any error in these...
a/ Though he was successful in engineering, Howard chose consulting as a career
b/ Though he had success in engineering, Howard chose consulting as a career

Ron,
One doubt on the explaination given by you about the past perfect tense "had had success"
what if it is written as "had succeeded"?
will it be wrong?

Experts pls help to answer the below query:

what if it is written as "had succeeded"?
will it be wrong?

Hi Ron,

Thanks for all your posts here which have washed all my confusion away except 2 which are as follows:

Is b)Though he has had wrong only because, you have 'opted' in the second part of the sentence and so you need a past perfect form?

In other words, if you have a present perfect, 2nd part of the sentence should be in present of future tence?

Will the below be correct:
Though he has had success broadcasting his controversial radio program on highly regulated terrestrial airwaves, Howard Stern will opt out of terrestrial broadcasting in favor of the less regulated satellite radio medium


or

Though he has had success broadcasting his controversial radio program on highly regulated terrestrial airwaves, Howard Stern opts out of terrestrial broadcasting in favor of the less regulated satellite radio medium





c) Even though he had
The only reason why above is wrong is because it has 'even' ?

Had it been ' Though he had' , would it have been correct?

Thanks a ton for your help.