"...a 21 year old Czechoslovak sewing operator, who had escaped her oppressive and war torn country..."
what is the function of the word "had?" I maintain it's what makes the escape past tense, my sister says it's not needed. Can you explain?
Thanks a BUNCH!
Catty ******************************************************** 02-16-03, 12:12 PM methos Maiku gets all the attention, doesn't he ;-) Without the "had" it would be past tense. With the "had" it is past perfect.
Past perfect tense is used to indicate that something happened before something else in the past. For example: He had gone swimming before he dried off. "had gone" is past perfect, "dried" is just past.
Past perfect tense is also used to indicate something that started in the past and stopped at some other, more recent, point in the past. For example: He had been in the U.S. for years before he emmigrated.
Without the rest of the passage, I can't be sure whether past or past perfect is appropriate in your example.
"Now in his early seventies, Wallace had first met Alicia in London at his father’s sewing factory, he a young, handsome plant manager of 25 and she a 21 year old Czechoslovak sewing operator who had escaped her oppressive and war torn country."
According to my sister, the second, bolded "had" is unnecessary in light of the first (nonbolded) "had."
Thank you for your answer.
Catty Smile
02-16-03, 01:33 PM juanruiz I see nothing untoward about that usage since, as an example of relative anteriority, it firmly places the escape before employment.
But, I have noticed that in informal usage, the pluperfect is being replaced by the simple past in English, Spanish, Italian, and French.
02-16-03, 01:46 PM methos I would say that the bolded had is necessary to indicate that the escape was before the meeting. I don't think the first had is necessary though.
02-16-03, 02:17 PM cattywampus Thank you methos and juan, for clearing that up for me.
Catty Big Grin
02-16-03, 02:18 PM maiku Catty, meet Methos. Methos, meet Catty. You can trust Methos' answers, Catty, just as you always trust one of my own. Wink Wink In fact, his replies above took the words right out of my mouth. If anything, it is the first instance of had which is deletable (and because of the context "Now in his early seventies, Wallace...first met", with no loss of meaning). Deleting the second had leaves a grammatical sentence, to be sure, but it doesn't mean exactly the same as the original. To adapt a statement so interestingly employed once by Richard Nixon, "We could delete it, but it would be wrong." Smile
02-16-03, 02:53 PM juanruiz Pluperfect is the past tense of the auxiliary verb "to have" plus the past participle. Some call it the past perfect.
02-16-03, 03:04 PM Dwight plu·per·fect - adj.
Of or being a verb tense used to express action completed before a specified or implied past time. More than perfect; supremely accomplished; ideal: “He has won a reputation as [a] pluperfect bureaucrat” (New York Times). n.
The pluperfect tense, formed in English with the past participle of a verb and the auxiliary had, as had learned in the sentence He had learned to type by the end of the semester. Also called past perfect. A verb or form in the pluperfect tense.
Catty, with your love of language, you should download and install "Atomica". With this program, you can Alt + Click on a word and get the definition as well as a translations, Dictionary and Web search for the word.
