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Usage of "HAD BEEN"

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by pink_08 » Tue Dec 29, 2009 7:34 pm
Consider the sentence :

The number of car accidents caused by faulty brakes, like accidents caused by faulty wiring, has increased significantly since regulations on manufacturing had been relaxed.


Manhattan explanation :
The past perfect "had been relaxed" can only be correctly used to indicate that the regulations were relaxed prior to some other action in the past. In this sentence, there is no other past action, so the use of the past perfect tense cannot be justified and the simple past "were relaxed" should be used instead.
My question is ::: Why can't we consider the verb - caused as the past action here.

And also can someone clarify if has increased is a present prefect tense here.
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by mmslf75 » Wed Dec 30, 2009 10:39 am
I STRONGLY suggest that you have a look here for ur query

https://www.beatthegmat.com/present-perf ... 49438.html

as for ur query on "CAUSED"
I will put some sentences, think abt why CAUSED is not Past Tense

He is convinced that this is the same car
They are convinced that he is same man


Here, even though we have "convinc - ed " , presence of key tense word " IS " and " ARE " forces us to say it is
Present Tense and not PAST ;-)

Some more insight " STUART's" examples

--------------------------------------------
I was convinced;
I am convinced;and
I will be convinced

are examples of the past, present and future, respectively, but all use "convinced" as part of the construction.

There are other words that work the same way, such as "tired" and "reduced"; what they all have in common is that they describe states of being and require the verb "to be" first. The form of the verb "to be" that you use determines the tense of the action.


These are actually PASSIVE Sense terms which take key tense words


yes "has increased" is presnet perfect here.
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