Which tense do I use when reporting an action that occurred yesterday? Planned maintenance scheduled April 23, 2019 at 23:30 UTC (7:30pm US/Eastern) Announcing the arrival of Valued Associate #679: Cesar Manara Unicorn Meta Zoo #1: Why another podcast?Sequence of tenses; repeating verbssequence of tenses in complex sentenceUse of indefinite article with relative clauseUsage of 'any' before more and comparative degreesWhich perfect tense to use in a defining clause with Simple Past?tense before “That was until …”Can I use “when” here?“I askED him if he knowS…” or “knew” - which one is correct?Should I use the same tense throughout the sentence?The use of the verb “predict” in the simple present tense with a verb in the past simple tense
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Which tense do I use when reporting an action that occurred yesterday?
Planned maintenance scheduled April 23, 2019 at 23:30 UTC (7:30pm US/Eastern)
Announcing the arrival of Valued Associate #679: Cesar Manara
Unicorn Meta Zoo #1: Why another podcast?Sequence of tenses; repeating verbssequence of tenses in complex sentenceUse of indefinite article with relative clauseUsage of 'any' before more and comparative degreesWhich perfect tense to use in a defining clause with Simple Past?tense before “That was until …”Can I use “when” here?“I askED him if he knowS…” or “knew” - which one is correct?Should I use the same tense throughout the sentence?The use of the verb “predict” in the simple present tense with a verb in the past simple tense
.everyoneloves__top-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__mid-leaderboard:empty,.everyoneloves__bot-mid-leaderboard:empty margin-bottom:0;
Today I told my friend that yesterday I had read the book which my father had given me two weeks ago
Today (when I told my friend) is 23rd March; I read the book on 22nd March, and my father gave it to me on 8th March.
Did I use the right tenses in the first (that yesterday I had read the book) and the second (which my father had given me two weeks ago) subordinate clauses? Are there any alternative versions in regard to the use of tenses in these subordinate clauses?
grammaticality sequence-of-tenses
migrated from english.stackexchange.com Mar 24 at 16:25
This question came from our site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts.
add a comment |
Today I told my friend that yesterday I had read the book which my father had given me two weeks ago
Today (when I told my friend) is 23rd March; I read the book on 22nd March, and my father gave it to me on 8th March.
Did I use the right tenses in the first (that yesterday I had read the book) and the second (which my father had given me two weeks ago) subordinate clauses? Are there any alternative versions in regard to the use of tenses in these subordinate clauses?
grammaticality sequence-of-tenses
migrated from english.stackexchange.com Mar 24 at 16:25
This question came from our site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts.
Could you edit your question to include the timeline? If today is 23rd March, when did you read the book and when did your father give it to you? [I suspect that "yesterday I had read the book" is wrong; a positive timeline would help establish which tenses should be used.]
– Andrew Leach
Mar 23 at 13:02
4
Today I told my friend that yesterday I read the book my father gave me two weeks ago.
– ЯegDwight
Mar 23 at 13:22
Yes, lets say that today is the 23rd of March, i read the book on the 22nd of March and my father gave it to me on the 8th of March. Why is yesterday i had read the book wrong? This clause is prior to the action of me telling my friend which is in the past too. So, why can't I use the past perfect in this sentence?
– Alex Shirokiy
Mar 23 at 14:13
Presumably the words you said to your friend were: Yesterday I read the book my father gave me two weeks ago. It is not ungrammatical to backshift read and gave to the past perfect when reporting what you said. But yesterday and two weeks ago are enough to establish the time frame, so backshift is unnecessary and I suspect most native speakers would say what @RegDwigнt suggests.
– Shoe
Mar 23 at 16:56
add a comment |
Today I told my friend that yesterday I had read the book which my father had given me two weeks ago
Today (when I told my friend) is 23rd March; I read the book on 22nd March, and my father gave it to me on 8th March.
Did I use the right tenses in the first (that yesterday I had read the book) and the second (which my father had given me two weeks ago) subordinate clauses? Are there any alternative versions in regard to the use of tenses in these subordinate clauses?
grammaticality sequence-of-tenses
Today I told my friend that yesterday I had read the book which my father had given me two weeks ago
Today (when I told my friend) is 23rd March; I read the book on 22nd March, and my father gave it to me on 8th March.
Did I use the right tenses in the first (that yesterday I had read the book) and the second (which my father had given me two weeks ago) subordinate clauses? Are there any alternative versions in regard to the use of tenses in these subordinate clauses?
grammaticality sequence-of-tenses
grammaticality sequence-of-tenses
asked Mar 23 at 12:55
Alex ShirokiyAlex Shirokiy
206
206
migrated from english.stackexchange.com Mar 24 at 16:25
This question came from our site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts.
migrated from english.stackexchange.com Mar 24 at 16:25
This question came from our site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts.
Could you edit your question to include the timeline? If today is 23rd March, when did you read the book and when did your father give it to you? [I suspect that "yesterday I had read the book" is wrong; a positive timeline would help establish which tenses should be used.]
– Andrew Leach
Mar 23 at 13:02
4
Today I told my friend that yesterday I read the book my father gave me two weeks ago.
– ЯegDwight
Mar 23 at 13:22
Yes, lets say that today is the 23rd of March, i read the book on the 22nd of March and my father gave it to me on the 8th of March. Why is yesterday i had read the book wrong? This clause is prior to the action of me telling my friend which is in the past too. So, why can't I use the past perfect in this sentence?
– Alex Shirokiy
Mar 23 at 14:13
Presumably the words you said to your friend were: Yesterday I read the book my father gave me two weeks ago. It is not ungrammatical to backshift read and gave to the past perfect when reporting what you said. But yesterday and two weeks ago are enough to establish the time frame, so backshift is unnecessary and I suspect most native speakers would say what @RegDwigнt suggests.
– Shoe
Mar 23 at 16:56
add a comment |
Could you edit your question to include the timeline? If today is 23rd March, when did you read the book and when did your father give it to you? [I suspect that "yesterday I had read the book" is wrong; a positive timeline would help establish which tenses should be used.]
– Andrew Leach
Mar 23 at 13:02
4
Today I told my friend that yesterday I read the book my father gave me two weeks ago.
– ЯegDwight
Mar 23 at 13:22
Yes, lets say that today is the 23rd of March, i read the book on the 22nd of March and my father gave it to me on the 8th of March. Why is yesterday i had read the book wrong? This clause is prior to the action of me telling my friend which is in the past too. So, why can't I use the past perfect in this sentence?
– Alex Shirokiy
Mar 23 at 14:13
Presumably the words you said to your friend were: Yesterday I read the book my father gave me two weeks ago. It is not ungrammatical to backshift read and gave to the past perfect when reporting what you said. But yesterday and two weeks ago are enough to establish the time frame, so backshift is unnecessary and I suspect most native speakers would say what @RegDwigнt suggests.
– Shoe
Mar 23 at 16:56
Could you edit your question to include the timeline? If today is 23rd March, when did you read the book and when did your father give it to you? [I suspect that "yesterday I had read the book" is wrong; a positive timeline would help establish which tenses should be used.]
– Andrew Leach
Mar 23 at 13:02
Could you edit your question to include the timeline? If today is 23rd March, when did you read the book and when did your father give it to you? [I suspect that "yesterday I had read the book" is wrong; a positive timeline would help establish which tenses should be used.]
– Andrew Leach
Mar 23 at 13:02
4
4
Today I told my friend that yesterday I read the book my father gave me two weeks ago.
– ЯegDwight
Mar 23 at 13:22
Today I told my friend that yesterday I read the book my father gave me two weeks ago.
– ЯegDwight
Mar 23 at 13:22
Yes, lets say that today is the 23rd of March, i read the book on the 22nd of March and my father gave it to me on the 8th of March. Why is yesterday i had read the book wrong? This clause is prior to the action of me telling my friend which is in the past too. So, why can't I use the past perfect in this sentence?
– Alex Shirokiy
Mar 23 at 14:13
Yes, lets say that today is the 23rd of March, i read the book on the 22nd of March and my father gave it to me on the 8th of March. Why is yesterday i had read the book wrong? This clause is prior to the action of me telling my friend which is in the past too. So, why can't I use the past perfect in this sentence?
– Alex Shirokiy
Mar 23 at 14:13
Presumably the words you said to your friend were: Yesterday I read the book my father gave me two weeks ago. It is not ungrammatical to backshift read and gave to the past perfect when reporting what you said. But yesterday and two weeks ago are enough to establish the time frame, so backshift is unnecessary and I suspect most native speakers would say what @RegDwigнt suggests.
– Shoe
Mar 23 at 16:56
Presumably the words you said to your friend were: Yesterday I read the book my father gave me two weeks ago. It is not ungrammatical to backshift read and gave to the past perfect when reporting what you said. But yesterday and two weeks ago are enough to establish the time frame, so backshift is unnecessary and I suspect most native speakers would say what @RegDwigнt suggests.
– Shoe
Mar 23 at 16:56
add a comment |
3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
A common trouble with ESL students is using the past perfect to talk about something in the past when sequence of events in the past is not important. The past perfect is used to talk about order of events in the past based on a reference point in the past, and is most commonly used by police, detectives, lawyers, and others who need to know the order of past events. Is it wrong to use the past perfect as you did in your example? No, but it does cause some confusion, as a native speaker might wonder why events were being ordered when the logic of the statement didn't require that. For example, if someone asked you, "What did you do yesterday?" and you answered, "I had gone to work," grammatically-speaking it is not incorrect, but it is using the near present as a reference point which is not natural.
That said, in your example, you used two markers, "today," and "yesterday" which anchor the sentence in time. The sequence of events is then, 1) Today 2) Told my friend 3) Yesterday 4) Read the book 5) My father gave it to me before yesterday. Because you used the marker "yesterday" it is not necessary to say "had" because "yesterday" as a new reference only requires the simple past.
Often for questions about tenses, a better question to ask is "Does this make sense?" For example, the statement "Yesterday, I will die," is not grammatically incorrect, but logically it doesn't make sense.
add a comment |
Without the time reference "yesterday", a person seeing the first statement below would infer the reading happened sometime between March 8 and March 22 (the dates mentioned by the OP)
Today I told my friend that I had read the book which my father had given me two weeks previously.
Today I told my friend that yesterday I had read the book which my father had given me two weeks ago.
Both are grammatically correct statements using reported speech.
In the second version, the reading of the book occurred before "yesterday" and the speaker's father loaned or gifted the book prior to it being read.
I see no compelling reason, other than of style, as to why the OP should change the Past Perfect tense to the Simple Past as suggested in the comments but, personally, I would prefer to keep the PP in the relative clause that begins with "which".
Me: “Yesterday I read the book my father gave me two weeks ago”
Alice: “Was it any good?”
[That same day]
- Today I told my friend that yesterday I read the book which my father had given two weeks ago.
As it is still two weeks since receiving the book, I don't think the past perfect is necessary. It is somewhat different if the whole exchange is shifted back a few weeks: Today I told my friend that on New Year's Eve I read the book my father had given me for Christmas. But even here I would probably use the simple past.
– Shoe
Mar 24 at 12:41
add a comment |
As an ESL learner, he or she often makes a sentence either truncated or redundant. I think an ESL should’t try to incorporate “wanted words” in a sentence. It hurts your brain and it never works that way. Here is what I can say
“I told my friend I had read the book which I got from my father two weeks ago.”
add a comment |
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3 Answers
3
active
oldest
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3 Answers
3
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
A common trouble with ESL students is using the past perfect to talk about something in the past when sequence of events in the past is not important. The past perfect is used to talk about order of events in the past based on a reference point in the past, and is most commonly used by police, detectives, lawyers, and others who need to know the order of past events. Is it wrong to use the past perfect as you did in your example? No, but it does cause some confusion, as a native speaker might wonder why events were being ordered when the logic of the statement didn't require that. For example, if someone asked you, "What did you do yesterday?" and you answered, "I had gone to work," grammatically-speaking it is not incorrect, but it is using the near present as a reference point which is not natural.
That said, in your example, you used two markers, "today," and "yesterday" which anchor the sentence in time. The sequence of events is then, 1) Today 2) Told my friend 3) Yesterday 4) Read the book 5) My father gave it to me before yesterday. Because you used the marker "yesterday" it is not necessary to say "had" because "yesterday" as a new reference only requires the simple past.
Often for questions about tenses, a better question to ask is "Does this make sense?" For example, the statement "Yesterday, I will die," is not grammatically incorrect, but logically it doesn't make sense.
add a comment |
A common trouble with ESL students is using the past perfect to talk about something in the past when sequence of events in the past is not important. The past perfect is used to talk about order of events in the past based on a reference point in the past, and is most commonly used by police, detectives, lawyers, and others who need to know the order of past events. Is it wrong to use the past perfect as you did in your example? No, but it does cause some confusion, as a native speaker might wonder why events were being ordered when the logic of the statement didn't require that. For example, if someone asked you, "What did you do yesterday?" and you answered, "I had gone to work," grammatically-speaking it is not incorrect, but it is using the near present as a reference point which is not natural.
That said, in your example, you used two markers, "today," and "yesterday" which anchor the sentence in time. The sequence of events is then, 1) Today 2) Told my friend 3) Yesterday 4) Read the book 5) My father gave it to me before yesterday. Because you used the marker "yesterday" it is not necessary to say "had" because "yesterday" as a new reference only requires the simple past.
Often for questions about tenses, a better question to ask is "Does this make sense?" For example, the statement "Yesterday, I will die," is not grammatically incorrect, but logically it doesn't make sense.
add a comment |
A common trouble with ESL students is using the past perfect to talk about something in the past when sequence of events in the past is not important. The past perfect is used to talk about order of events in the past based on a reference point in the past, and is most commonly used by police, detectives, lawyers, and others who need to know the order of past events. Is it wrong to use the past perfect as you did in your example? No, but it does cause some confusion, as a native speaker might wonder why events were being ordered when the logic of the statement didn't require that. For example, if someone asked you, "What did you do yesterday?" and you answered, "I had gone to work," grammatically-speaking it is not incorrect, but it is using the near present as a reference point which is not natural.
That said, in your example, you used two markers, "today," and "yesterday" which anchor the sentence in time. The sequence of events is then, 1) Today 2) Told my friend 3) Yesterday 4) Read the book 5) My father gave it to me before yesterday. Because you used the marker "yesterday" it is not necessary to say "had" because "yesterday" as a new reference only requires the simple past.
Often for questions about tenses, a better question to ask is "Does this make sense?" For example, the statement "Yesterday, I will die," is not grammatically incorrect, but logically it doesn't make sense.
A common trouble with ESL students is using the past perfect to talk about something in the past when sequence of events in the past is not important. The past perfect is used to talk about order of events in the past based on a reference point in the past, and is most commonly used by police, detectives, lawyers, and others who need to know the order of past events. Is it wrong to use the past perfect as you did in your example? No, but it does cause some confusion, as a native speaker might wonder why events were being ordered when the logic of the statement didn't require that. For example, if someone asked you, "What did you do yesterday?" and you answered, "I had gone to work," grammatically-speaking it is not incorrect, but it is using the near present as a reference point which is not natural.
That said, in your example, you used two markers, "today," and "yesterday" which anchor the sentence in time. The sequence of events is then, 1) Today 2) Told my friend 3) Yesterday 4) Read the book 5) My father gave it to me before yesterday. Because you used the marker "yesterday" it is not necessary to say "had" because "yesterday" as a new reference only requires the simple past.
Often for questions about tenses, a better question to ask is "Does this make sense?" For example, the statement "Yesterday, I will die," is not grammatically incorrect, but logically it doesn't make sense.
answered Mar 24 at 6:39
michael_timofeevmichael_timofeev
27928
27928
add a comment |
add a comment |
Without the time reference "yesterday", a person seeing the first statement below would infer the reading happened sometime between March 8 and March 22 (the dates mentioned by the OP)
Today I told my friend that I had read the book which my father had given me two weeks previously.
Today I told my friend that yesterday I had read the book which my father had given me two weeks ago.
Both are grammatically correct statements using reported speech.
In the second version, the reading of the book occurred before "yesterday" and the speaker's father loaned or gifted the book prior to it being read.
I see no compelling reason, other than of style, as to why the OP should change the Past Perfect tense to the Simple Past as suggested in the comments but, personally, I would prefer to keep the PP in the relative clause that begins with "which".
Me: “Yesterday I read the book my father gave me two weeks ago”
Alice: “Was it any good?”
[That same day]
- Today I told my friend that yesterday I read the book which my father had given two weeks ago.
As it is still two weeks since receiving the book, I don't think the past perfect is necessary. It is somewhat different if the whole exchange is shifted back a few weeks: Today I told my friend that on New Year's Eve I read the book my father had given me for Christmas. But even here I would probably use the simple past.
– Shoe
Mar 24 at 12:41
add a comment |
Without the time reference "yesterday", a person seeing the first statement below would infer the reading happened sometime between March 8 and March 22 (the dates mentioned by the OP)
Today I told my friend that I had read the book which my father had given me two weeks previously.
Today I told my friend that yesterday I had read the book which my father had given me two weeks ago.
Both are grammatically correct statements using reported speech.
In the second version, the reading of the book occurred before "yesterday" and the speaker's father loaned or gifted the book prior to it being read.
I see no compelling reason, other than of style, as to why the OP should change the Past Perfect tense to the Simple Past as suggested in the comments but, personally, I would prefer to keep the PP in the relative clause that begins with "which".
Me: “Yesterday I read the book my father gave me two weeks ago”
Alice: “Was it any good?”
[That same day]
- Today I told my friend that yesterday I read the book which my father had given two weeks ago.
As it is still two weeks since receiving the book, I don't think the past perfect is necessary. It is somewhat different if the whole exchange is shifted back a few weeks: Today I told my friend that on New Year's Eve I read the book my father had given me for Christmas. But even here I would probably use the simple past.
– Shoe
Mar 24 at 12:41
add a comment |
Without the time reference "yesterday", a person seeing the first statement below would infer the reading happened sometime between March 8 and March 22 (the dates mentioned by the OP)
Today I told my friend that I had read the book which my father had given me two weeks previously.
Today I told my friend that yesterday I had read the book which my father had given me two weeks ago.
Both are grammatically correct statements using reported speech.
In the second version, the reading of the book occurred before "yesterday" and the speaker's father loaned or gifted the book prior to it being read.
I see no compelling reason, other than of style, as to why the OP should change the Past Perfect tense to the Simple Past as suggested in the comments but, personally, I would prefer to keep the PP in the relative clause that begins with "which".
Me: “Yesterday I read the book my father gave me two weeks ago”
Alice: “Was it any good?”
[That same day]
- Today I told my friend that yesterday I read the book which my father had given two weeks ago.
Without the time reference "yesterday", a person seeing the first statement below would infer the reading happened sometime between March 8 and March 22 (the dates mentioned by the OP)
Today I told my friend that I had read the book which my father had given me two weeks previously.
Today I told my friend that yesterday I had read the book which my father had given me two weeks ago.
Both are grammatically correct statements using reported speech.
In the second version, the reading of the book occurred before "yesterday" and the speaker's father loaned or gifted the book prior to it being read.
I see no compelling reason, other than of style, as to why the OP should change the Past Perfect tense to the Simple Past as suggested in the comments but, personally, I would prefer to keep the PP in the relative clause that begins with "which".
Me: “Yesterday I read the book my father gave me two weeks ago”
Alice: “Was it any good?”
[That same day]
- Today I told my friend that yesterday I read the book which my father had given two weeks ago.
edited Mar 25 at 4:14
answered Mar 24 at 11:06
Mari-Lou AMari-Lou A
14.3k74080
14.3k74080
As it is still two weeks since receiving the book, I don't think the past perfect is necessary. It is somewhat different if the whole exchange is shifted back a few weeks: Today I told my friend that on New Year's Eve I read the book my father had given me for Christmas. But even here I would probably use the simple past.
– Shoe
Mar 24 at 12:41
add a comment |
As it is still two weeks since receiving the book, I don't think the past perfect is necessary. It is somewhat different if the whole exchange is shifted back a few weeks: Today I told my friend that on New Year's Eve I read the book my father had given me for Christmas. But even here I would probably use the simple past.
– Shoe
Mar 24 at 12:41
As it is still two weeks since receiving the book, I don't think the past perfect is necessary. It is somewhat different if the whole exchange is shifted back a few weeks: Today I told my friend that on New Year's Eve I read the book my father had given me for Christmas. But even here I would probably use the simple past.
– Shoe
Mar 24 at 12:41
As it is still two weeks since receiving the book, I don't think the past perfect is necessary. It is somewhat different if the whole exchange is shifted back a few weeks: Today I told my friend that on New Year's Eve I read the book my father had given me for Christmas. But even here I would probably use the simple past.
– Shoe
Mar 24 at 12:41
add a comment |
As an ESL learner, he or she often makes a sentence either truncated or redundant. I think an ESL should’t try to incorporate “wanted words” in a sentence. It hurts your brain and it never works that way. Here is what I can say
“I told my friend I had read the book which I got from my father two weeks ago.”
add a comment |
As an ESL learner, he or she often makes a sentence either truncated or redundant. I think an ESL should’t try to incorporate “wanted words” in a sentence. It hurts your brain and it never works that way. Here is what I can say
“I told my friend I had read the book which I got from my father two weeks ago.”
add a comment |
As an ESL learner, he or she often makes a sentence either truncated or redundant. I think an ESL should’t try to incorporate “wanted words” in a sentence. It hurts your brain and it never works that way. Here is what I can say
“I told my friend I had read the book which I got from my father two weeks ago.”
As an ESL learner, he or she often makes a sentence either truncated or redundant. I think an ESL should’t try to incorporate “wanted words” in a sentence. It hurts your brain and it never works that way. Here is what I can say
“I told my friend I had read the book which I got from my father two weeks ago.”
answered Mar 24 at 0:31
Long PhamLong Pham
1
1
add a comment |
add a comment |
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Could you edit your question to include the timeline? If today is 23rd March, when did you read the book and when did your father give it to you? [I suspect that "yesterday I had read the book" is wrong; a positive timeline would help establish which tenses should be used.]
– Andrew Leach
Mar 23 at 13:02
4
Today I told my friend that yesterday I read the book my father gave me two weeks ago.
– ЯegDwight
Mar 23 at 13:22
Yes, lets say that today is the 23rd of March, i read the book on the 22nd of March and my father gave it to me on the 8th of March. Why is yesterday i had read the book wrong? This clause is prior to the action of me telling my friend which is in the past too. So, why can't I use the past perfect in this sentence?
– Alex Shirokiy
Mar 23 at 14:13
Presumably the words you said to your friend were: Yesterday I read the book my father gave me two weeks ago. It is not ungrammatical to backshift read and gave to the past perfect when reporting what you said. But yesterday and two weeks ago are enough to establish the time frame, so backshift is unnecessary and I suspect most native speakers would say what @RegDwigнt suggests.
– Shoe
Mar 23 at 16:56