Jooney Posted 15 years ago
Grammar
Tense in 'after' clause
Hi,
One of my grammar book says, "in some contexts", past and past perfect are interchangeably used in a subordinate clause starting with 'after'.
The author says the following sentences "could very well be describing the same sequence of events":
A: I ate my lunch after my wife had come back from town.
B: I ate my lunch after my wife came back from town.
The reason is that 'after' itself places the wife's arrival before the eating, so the past perfect in A is redundant.
Ok, I get it, but I want to know of other instances where you would have to use only one of the tenses.(The author doesn't provide one)
Could anybody give some examples like this? Thanks.
One of my grammar book says, "in some contexts", past and past perfect are interchangeably used in a subordinate clause starting with 'after'.
The author says the following sentences "could very well be describing the same sequence of events":
A: I ate my lunch after my wife had come back from town.
B: I ate my lunch after my wife came back from town.
The reason is that 'after' itself places the wife's arrival before the eating, so the past perfect in A is redundant.
Ok, I get it, but I want to know of other instances where you would have to use only one of the tenses.(The author doesn't provide one)
Could anybody give some examples like this? Thanks.
Top answer
The point is that since 'after' already orders the sequence of events, past perfect would be used when the speaker wishes to emphasize that the first event was completed before the second occurred.
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The point is that since 'after' already orders the sequence of events, past perfect would be used when the speaker wishes to emphasize that the first event was completed before the second occurred.
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