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FreakingGPAforZero
Joined: 28 Aug 2016
Last visit: 28 Nov 2017
Posts: 20
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Schools: Bocconi '21
30 Sep 2016, 11:01
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How I understand it the past perfect is used whenever there are two actions in the past and the author intends a chronological order between them. Is it correct that the later action has to be the result of the first one? (So can I test the answers by asking whether the second action is a logical result of the first one?).
I am asking because I am often not sure whether the two actions are related or not. Is there any trick you would suggest?
I am also a non native speaker so this question might be strange to you, since it is so natural to you native speakers.
I am asking because I am often not sure whether the two actions are related or not. Is there any trick you would suggest?
I am also a non native speaker so this question might be strange to you, since it is so natural to you native speakers.
30 Sep 2016, 14:10
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FreakingGPAforZero
Dear FreakingGPAforZero,
I'm happy to respond.
Here's an article about the perfect tenses.
All the use of the past perfect implies is a time sequence, one past event before another past event. It implies nothing else. In particular, absolutely no logical or causal relationship is implied. Now, often it happens that there is some logical or causal connection between the two events, and this is precisely why these two factoids are mentioned in the same sentence. It may often be the cause, but it doesn't have to be the case: strictly speaking, use of the past perfect tense implies nothing except a different in time sequence.
The tricky thing about the use of the past perfect on the GMAT is the possible redundancy. If past event X happened before past event Y, there are a number of ways in which we could indicate that time sequence: we could use the words "before" or "after" in describing the sequence, for example, or we might give historical dates. If there is some other way that we can deduce the sequence of past events from other clues in the sentence, then also using the past perfect tense is redundant, and the GMAT has zero tolerance for redundancy.
X happened before Y happened. = correct
X had happened before Y happened. = wrong on the GMAT
X happened, and later Y happened. = correct
X had happened, and later Y happened. = wrong on the GMAT
When Y took place, X had happened. = correct
In those first two sentence, the word "before" and "later" are indications of the time sequence, so the GMAT would consider the past perfect redundant. If we change the past perfect to an ordinary past tense, the sentence has the same meaning---those are the first two correct versions. In the last example, we need the past perfect, because if we changed the past perfect "had happened" to the ordinary past "happened," we would get a different meaning.
Does all this make sense?
Mike
