Perfect Stranger Posted 13 years ago
Grammar
grammar question no. 31: if you wanted/if you had wanted
Hello everyone,
Here's a brief description of the situation.
A day ago two people were supposed to go out together. Unfortunately, for some reason they didn't. At the of end of the day they are having this conversation:
A: Why didn't you answer the phone when I called you? I wanted to know what time we would meet.
B: You called me too late. I was waiting for your call until 4pm.
A: Well, I was busy.
B: If you really wanted to meet, why didn't you call me earlier?
Now, there are at least three points I'd like to ask about.
1. Should speaker B use past perfect tense in his/her first sentence? Should B say I had been waiting for your call...
2. Should speaker A say I had been busy.
3. Should speaker B use the third conditional in the last sentence? If you rally had wanted to meet... After all speaker B is referring to a past action that didn't happen.
Thank you.
Here's a brief description of the situation.
A day ago two people were supposed to go out together. Unfortunately, for some reason they didn't. At the of end of the day they are having this conversation:
A: Why didn't you answer the phone when I called you? I wanted to know what time we would meet.
B: You called me too late. I was waiting for your call until 4pm.
A: Well, I was busy.
B: If you really wanted to meet, why didn't you call me earlier?
Now, there are at least three points I'd like to ask about.
1. Should speaker B use past perfect tense in his/her first sentence? Should B say I had been waiting for your call...
2. Should speaker A say I had been busy.
3. Should speaker B use the third conditional in the last sentence? If you rally had wanted to meet... After all speaker B is referring to a past action that didn't happen.
Thank you.
Top answer
Hope someone will notice this one
Get the Weekly English Kit 📬
New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.
0
0
1. NEITHER. I prefer "I waited for your call until 4pm." This also matches the tense of "called" in the preceding sentence.
2. NO. "I was busy." is correct.
3. YES. "If you really had wanted to meet..." is better. This is a usage of the past perfect tense to express dissastisfaction with the past.
2. NO. "I was busy." is correct.
3. YES. "If you really had wanted to meet..." is better. This is a usage of the past perfect tense to express dissastisfaction with the past.
00
First of all, let me thank you for dropping by KJinCali79 
Let me ask you some further questions. I'm a grammar nutcase and
Let me ask you some further questions. I'm a grammar nutcase and
00
Perfect StrangerDon't you think that was waiting would express the idea of continuity here?Was waiting is not necessarily incorrect; however, since you specify "until 4PM" it sounds very finished. Which is why I thought "waited" was a better choice. Again, it also matches the tense of the preceding sentence.
As for your second question, busy,
0