I have a quick question regarding the use of words 'before' and 'after' as discussed in edition 4 on page 110:

With words 'before' and 'after' we don't need to use past perfect to clarify the sequence of events but I found an older post in the forum which talks about some exception to this rule.

This is the post by an MGMAT Staff member Rey:

#9): The problem reads: "They never met an Australian before they met Crocodile Dundee."
There is a rule about the words BEFORE and AFTER as you described, and these words do create an exception about when to use the past perfect tense. There is, however, an exception to this exception! If the "more past" action occurs at an unspecified point in time, then you must use the past perfect tense along with BEFORE or AFTER. That's what we have occurring here in #9. Here are some examples to illustrate:

I bought an iPhone right before Apple lowered its price.
No need to use past perfect here ("I had bought...") because when the iPhone was bought is specified: right before Apple lowered its price.

I had visited Brazil before I took my daughter to Sao Paolo last spring.
Here, we need the past perfect because the earlier trip to Brazil happened at an indeterminate point in time.

Rey
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I was clear about the before and after rule but after reading the above post I got confused. Please clarify.

i can't locate this post by Rey, and it looks a little suspicious. can you provide a link so i can take a closer look at the context in order to answer your question?

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Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

Thanks for getting back, Tim.

It was an old post that I found a couple of weeks back. I can't find it now. Can you please tell if there any exceptions to the before and after rule that is discussed on page # 110 (edition #4)? The rule says that when the words before and after are used we don't need to use past perfect tense to clarify the sequence of events. Are there any exceptions to this rule?

i think you are safe to apply the rule as given in the SC book. it's always difficult to say there are NO exceptions, but this is a pretty solid rule you can rely on if you apply it exactly as described in the book..

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Tim Sanders
Manhattan GMAT Instructor

Please have a look at this post
british-india-who-t2008.html
and let us know what the rule is for the before and after and the usage of the past perfect tense.

Thanks

Hi,

In that post, there is a good explanation by Stacey about what you have asked.

Did you have any specific query on that or did you not understand?

Regards

Sunil

Indeed, thanks Sunil!

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Jamie Nelson
ManhattanGMAT Instructor