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Ask for help > Discussion of grammar
Discussion of grammar
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savvinka
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Discussion of grammar
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Dear friends, I hope you �ve had a very good beginning of the week.I �ve got a question to ask. According to the key the sentence "They made lunch before I arrived". is correct. I could agree with it, but can you explain, why? and is any possiblility to say "They were making lunch before I arrived? Thank you for your kind explaination. Olga
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28 Nov 2011
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Engteachar
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I think you can say:
They had made lunch before I arrived. Or "They were making lunch when I arrived. |
28 Nov 2011
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chenchen_castrourdiales
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As far as I know, the past perfect tense is not very frequently used in English. We use the past perfect tense to talk about a past event which happened before another past event (double past). However, in the given example it is clear by the use of the time conjunction "before" which action happened first, that �s why the use of the past perfect in the main clause is unnecessary, it is also correct though. If you use time conjunctions such as "before" and "after", " as soon as" the use of the past perfect is unnecessary since they make the order of events clear.Compare these sentences:
After he (had) finished his exams he went to Paris for a month.
As soon as I (had) put the phone down it rang again.
Before they went on holiday, they (had) had seven vaccinations.
It is used with by the time that and when :
When I arrived at the party, Mary left. (=I arrived and then Mary left.)
When I arrived at the party, Mary had left. (=Mary left and then I arrived.)
By the time I got to the station, the train had left. (=the train left and then I got to the station)
I got to the stationand the train left. (=sequence of past events in the order that they happened.)
The past perfect marks the first action as separate, independent od the second, completed before the second started. In contrast, the simple past can suggest that one action leads into the other, or that there is a cause and effect link between them.
Hope this helps you. |
28 Nov 2011
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savvinka
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Dear chenchen_castrourdiales,
Thank you very much for yr quick reply,Of course, you �ve helped me. You �ve dispeled my doubts, now I can explain it convincingly to my student who has made a mistake in the test. What a remarkable site it is! I always can ask for a help! |
28 Nov 2011
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yanogator
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Yes, David gave an excellent explanation, Olga.
Also, it is possible to say "They were making lunch before I arrived" in a specific situation. Remember that the continuous tenses emphasize the activity and the time involved, rather than the result. If it is the activity of making the lunch that you want to emphasize, then you can say, "They were making lunch before I arrived". Maybe your arrival interrupted them, but the interruption isn �t important, so you don �t want to say "when I arrived". Or maybe they were expecting you to help them make lunch, but they began without you.
Bruce |
28 Nov 2011
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