NCC wrote:
Hey Charles
GMATNinja,
I love the fact that we have this thread, so thank you!
My question is on the usage of Past perfect in sentences where we have time indicators such as - "before, after"
In some questions, "had" is dropped and in others, it is not.
DO shed some light here please-
Q1] The Federal Reserve announcement said </underline>that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few</underline> signs of higher energy prices driving up the cost of other goods so far.
• that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few
• growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few
• that growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are little
• growth had accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are little
• that growth accelerated after slowing in the second quarter and that the policy makers remain concerned about the prospects of inflation, even though there are few
Here I eliminated options with "had" but OA: A
There are other questions where they eliminate "had'' the reason is that time markers are present.
How to decide?
Sorry for the insanely long delay on this one!
That particular sentence uses the past perfect in a fairly "standard" way: there's a simple past action (said) and second past action (had accelerated) that happened before that simple past action. (For more on that particular sentence, check out this post and our follow-up posts on the thread for that question:
https://gmatclub.com/forum/the-federal- ... l#p2432069.)
Unfortunately, there aren't any definitive rules for when you MUST use the past perfect. Usually the past perfect makes sense when you have two past actions happening at different times in the past OR when you have a time marker and some other past action. But that doesn't mean that you NEED to use the past perfect in those cases.
So when you see the past perfect, you have to ask yourself, "Does using the past perfect make sense here, or does it imply an illogical chronology?" And if you have one option that uses the past perfect and another that does not, then you have to decide whether the past perfect makes the chronology clearer and easier to understand.
As always, it's about comparing your options and picking the best one, and unfortunately it's not a matter of memorizing and applying a long list of grammar rules.
For more on GMAT verb tenses, check out
this older live video, or
this newer one.
I hope that helps a bit, and sorry again for the delay!
close
05 Aug 2022, 01:15
