Hi Meex I agree with ScholiastSo, you mean I should not use joined in this sentence?
Hi ScholiastGrammatically this is fine - but, as I wrote in my previous post, it must be past in the past:
"By the time he was eight years old, he had [already] learned Latin and Greek".
"He had left the house before his wife realised that he had gone".
"Before he faced Spassky for the World Chess Championship, Fischer had already defeated every other Russian Master".
That sentence is correct. I wouldn't use the past perfect there. (Hang in there! Don't get too frustratedSO you mean it is not grammatically correct if I say:
"She attended the course from July to December."?
Because if you say Past Perfect Tense is for the past in the past, the above sentence is only a past. So, why should I use had attended instead of attended?
God, this is killing meI understand the example you gave me above but when it comes to the original sentence I wrote, I get confused.
So past in the past is synonymous with pluperfect, then? Thanks for the explanationGreetings, especially here to Aidanriley (#9 in this Thread)
Under the foolish impression that I had already explained the pluperfect tense, I received your further enquiry.
This is to me a pluperfect, not a "past perfect".
Maybe here it's an issue of US/British usage in purely grammatical terminology.![]()
It isn't incorrect to say that, but I recommend you pick another verb. The problem lies in the verb to join rather than in the tense. That verb seems to refer to the first day she started to attend, or the day she registered for the course. While to join and to attend can overlap in meaning in some contexts, here to join is not a good choice in my opinion because, in the context of classes, I have the preconception that to join a class means to register for a class.That means
"She JOINED the course from July to December" is correct too?
Sort of"She JOINED the course from July to December" is correct too?
Meex, can you tell us more about the context - in other words, can you tell us what the teaching point is here? In most contexts, the simple past will be preferable; in some, the past perfect will be more appropriateI know exactly what it means. The problem is I have to explain to the kids which sentence is correct despite the verb:
She JOINED the course from July to December.
or
She HAD JOINED the course from July to December.