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# Somebody Explain Pls Q Past Perfect Tense

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Senior Manager
Joined: 12 Apr 2010
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Somebody Explain Pls Q Past Perfect Tense [#permalink]

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09 Jun 2010, 01:23
How can we know how/detect whether the sequence of time needs to be emphasized or clarified in a sentence?.

The Mgmat SC says use Past perfect tense only when
one action in the past precedes another and the time sequence needs to be emphasized or clarified.

Example:

Joe LEARNED about an epoch in which dinosaurs HAD WALKED the earth WRONG

The Mgmat gives an explanation stating even though the action WALKED took place earlier than LEARNED, past perfect tense should not be applied to WALKED as the sequence of time does not need to be emphasized or clarified.

Also, The past Perfect had walked is unnecessary as the action does not have a direct bearing on the context of the later action.

But how can this be true, i.e. if the action had walked had not taken place then how can the action LEARNED happenp.s ( i am not sure exactly whether i can use Had i.e. past perfect here or not ).
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Last edited by BlueRobin on 09 Jun 2010, 08:03, edited 3 times in total.
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Senior Manager
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Re: Question on past Perfect Tense [#permalink]

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09 Jun 2010, 06:28
Comon People, somone reply for my question.
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Re: Somebody Explain Pls Q Past Perfect Tense [#permalink]

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09 Jun 2010, 23:21
1
KUDOS
BlueRobin wrote:
Joe LEARNED about an epoch in which dinosaurs HAD WALKED the earth WRONG

The Mgmat gives an explanation stating even though the action WALKED took place earlier than LEARNED, past perfect tense should not be applied to WALKED as the sequence of time does not need to be emphasized or clarified.

The rule of using past perfect tense applies when you are comparing two actions. In this case, we are talking about LEARNING of Joe. The part "...an epoch in which..." already refers to the era of dinosaurs, so no use of "had".

The sentence where you need to apply the rule of 'use of had'-

Here, we are comparing two times. The time when Joe's entered & the time when Dinosaurs finished the cake. Moreover, "when" in the above sentence refers to the action of Joe's entrance, so to refer any action earlier to that action, we use 'had'.
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Senior Manager
Joined: 12 Apr 2010
Posts: 446
Followers: 11

Kudos [?]: 104 [0], given: 157

Re: Somebody Explain Pls Q Past Perfect Tense [#permalink]

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11 Jun 2010, 06:53
alpeshvc wrote:
BlueRobin wrote:
Joe LEARNED about an epoch in which dinosaurs HAD WALKED the earth WRONG

The Mgmat gives an explanation stating even though the action WALKED took place earlier than LEARNED, past perfect tense should not be applied to WALKED as the sequence of time does not need to be emphasized or clarified.

The rule of using past perfect tense applies when you are comparing two actions. In this case, we are talking about LEARNING of Joe. The part "...an epoch in which..." already refers to the era of dinosaurs, so no use of "had".

The sentence where you need to apply the rule of 'use of had'-

Here, we are comparing two times. The time when Joe's entered & the time when Dinosaurs finished the cake. Moreover, "when" in the above sentence refers to the action of Joe's entrance, so to refer any action earlier to that action, we use 'had'.

Thanks a lot alpe,

I got it now after some practice, when to apply past perfect tense.

Here as you explained we are not applying past perfect because past perfect needs
1 past action 2 past action happened after 1

So 1 can be said to be past perfect i.e. had+past participle(-ed form of verb)

But since its only mentioned dinosaurs walked on earth there is no mention of whether they walked the earth before mighty joe.

So past perfect does not need to be applied.

kudos.
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Re: Somebody Explain Pls Q Past Perfect Tense   [#permalink] 11 Jun 2010, 06:53
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