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mSKR
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The Neanderthals, once considered dull-witted brutes, are 26 Mar 2021, 06:36
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VeritasKarishma
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The Neanderthals, once considered dull-witted brutes, are now known to have had brains fully as large as our own.

(A) to have had brains
(B) as having brains that are
(C) to have brains that were
(D) that their brains were
(E) that they had brains that were



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I googled this question and found out that the reason why C wasn't the answer was that "were" was inconsistent with other verb tense. According to what I found, "were" should be "are", which is present tense.

So if "were" were "are", could C be the answer?

Also, I am confused why we need present perfect tense instead of simple present tense ?( I am talking about A)

"to have had" is perfect infinitive which we use when reporting an earlier event in passive voice.

The form of perfect infinitive is "to have + ed form of verb"

e.g.
Active - They know that A had a big brain.
Passive - A is known to have had a big brain.

Earlier event - A had a big brain. We are reporting it in passive voice so we use "is known to have had"

Active - They believe that the previous documents had errors.
Passive - The previous documents are believed to have had errors.

Hence (A) is correct.

Try to read high quality literature regularly to develop an ear for these kind of constructs. There is only so much "grammar" that you can work on.
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Hi VeritasKarishma ma'm

Query1: Please share your comments on present perfect passive tense. Passive(1) should be correct?

Active - They know that A have a big brain.
Passive (1)- A is known to have have a big brain. -- this should be correct but I never heard for present as such.
or
Passive - A is known to have a big brain. --> but here why have have logic is not applicable?


Active - They believe that the previous documents have errors.
Passive(1) - The previous documents are believed to have errors. -- this should be correct but I never heard for present as such.
or
Passive - The previous documents are believed to have have errors. - but here why have have logic is not applicable?

Query2:
E.g. I have have lunch
replace have with eaten
I have eaten lunch -- it is easy to understand.

passive: Lunch have been have by me?-- is this construction correct?
If I imagine have --> eaten
Lunch have been eaten by me --seems correct now

Am I right?

Query3: For this current question, can I replace have with another word to understand the meaning easily?
The Neanderthals, once considered dull-witted brutes, are now known to have EXISTED brains fully as large as our own.
is this method correct and make sense?

Please share your opinion.

Thanks! VeritasKarishma
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The Neanderthals, once considered dull-witted brutes, are 13 Aug 2022, 19:20
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"once considered" is past event -1
and "had brains" is another past event-2 happened before past event -1
so, past perfect is used. right?
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The Neanderthals, once considered dull-witted brutes, are 14 Aug 2022, 05:52
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SolankiDas
"once considered" is past event -1
and "had brains" is another past event-2 happened before past event -1
so, past perfect is used. right?
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Hello SolankiDas,

We hope this finds you well.

To answer your query, Option A actually uses the perfect infinitive, not the past perfect; the perfect infinitive verb form (“to + have + past participle” – “to have had” in this sentence) is used to refer to the earlier of two actions in the past, refer to hypothetical actions, and actions that will be completed in the future from a point further in the future.

We hope this helps.
All the best!
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The Neanderthals, once considered dull-witted brutes, are 14 Aug 2022, 20:05
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SolankiDas
"once considered" is past event -1
and "had brains" is another past event-2 happened before past event -1
so, past perfect is used. right?
Show more

Infinitives ("to + VERB") are not verbs, so they don't have verb tenses.

Infinitives are modifiers. Like other modifiers that don't contain verbs, they indicate timeframes RELATIVE TO the clause to which they're attached.
• "to + VERB" adopts the SAME timeframe as the clause to which it's attached.
• "to + have VERBed" indicates a timeframe PRIOR TO that of the clause to which it's attached.

The actual VERB here is "ARE known"—which must appear in the present tense, because this is something that anthropologists KNOW ••NOW•• (in the present timeframe).

Given THAT TENSE:
• "to + HAVE" is INCORRECT. This infinitive must adopt the same timeframe as the clause to which it's attached—but that's nonsense here, because the timeframe of that clause is the present. Neanderthals do not exist anymore (they were driven to extinction by early humans).
• "to + have HAD" is CORRECT. This infinitive indicates a PRIOR timeframe—so, in this case, it signals something from EARLIER THAN THE PRESENT. That's exactly what we need.
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The Neanderthals, once considered dull-witted brutes, are 20 Aug 2023, 07:08
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