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Perfect Tense : Only when necessary

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abhishek.shanker
 Post subject: Perfect Tense : Only when necessary
 Post Posted: Sat Jul 02, 2011 2:42 pm 
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Students


Posts: 9
The Manhattan SC guide states: "use Past perfect tense only when one action in the past precedes another and the time sequence needs to be emphasized or clarified"

Example:

Joe LEARNED about an epoch in which dinosaurs HAD WALKED the earth - Wrong

The explanation given states that even though the action WALKED took place earlier than LEARNED, past perfect tense should not be applied to WALKED as the sequence of time does not need to be emphasized or clarified.Also, The past Perfect had walked is unnecessary as the action does not have a direct bearing on the context of the later action.

My reasoning: Action WALKED if not completed then "LEARNING" cannot take place. Can some one please clarify? Is this concept applicable always? Also how do we decide if an action has impact on other.
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varun_783
 Post subject: Re: Perfect Tense : Only when necessary
 Post Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 3:41 am 
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Course Students


Posts: 263
Hi Abhishek,

abhishek.shanker wrote:
Joe LEARNED about an epoch in which dinosaurs HAD WALKED the earth - Wrong


If you look at context of the sentence, you know that dinosaurs existed before Joe. The past action is obvious and does not require the use of past perfect.

abhishek.shanker wrote:
My reasoning: Action WALKED if not completed then "LEARNING" cannot take place. Can some one please clarify?


Correct but using simple past, it does not mean that the action "walked" did not complete.
abhishek.shanker wrote:
Also how do we decide if an action has impact on other.


You have to look at the meaning of the sentence and decide accordingly.

Regards

Sunil
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jnelson0612
 Post subject: Re: Perfect Tense : Only when necessary
 Post Posted: Sun Jul 03, 2011 10:06 pm 
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ManhattanGMAT Staff


Posts: 1857
Sunil is correct yet again! :-)

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Jamie Nelson
ManhattanGMAT Instructor
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