Using Past-Perfect interchangeably with the Past Continuous
I've seen this sentence in another post here:
- Tom Cruise was thinking of a career in the church before finding a job in the movies.
Would it be fine to use the Past-Perfect as well? If so, which tense is better?
Here are a few options that came to my mind:
- Tom Cruise had been thinking of a career in the church before finding a job in the movies.
or
- Tom Cruise had been thinking of a career in the church before he found a job in the movies.
- Tom Cruise had thought of a career in the church before he found a job in the movies.
past-perfect past-perfect-continuous
asked 2 days ago
SunnySideDownSunnySideDown
675
add a comment |
I've seen this sentence in another post here:
- Tom Cruise was thinking of a career in the church before finding a job in the movies.
Would it be fine to use the Past-Perfect as well? If so, which tense is better?
Here are a few options that came to my mind:
- Tom Cruise had been thinking of a career in the church before finding a job in the movies.
or
- Tom Cruise had been thinking of a career in the church before he found a job in the movies.
- Tom Cruise had thought of a career in the church before he found a job in the movies.
past-perfect past-perfect-continuous
asked 2 days ago
SunnySideDownSunnySideDown
675
add a comment |
I've seen this sentence in another post here:
- Tom Cruise was thinking of a career in the church before finding a job in the movies.
Would it be fine to use the Past-Perfect as well? If so, which tense is better?
Here are a few options that came to my mind:
- Tom Cruise had been thinking of a career in the church before finding a job in the movies.
or
- Tom Cruise had been thinking of a career in the church before he found a job in the movies.
- Tom Cruise had thought of a career in the church before he found a job in the movies.
past-perfect past-perfect-continuous
asked 2 days ago
SunnySideDownSunnySideDown
675
I've seen this sentence in another post here:
- Tom Cruise was thinking of a career in the church before finding a job in the movies.
Would it be fine to use the Past-Perfect as well? If so, which tense is better?
Here are a few options that came to my mind:
- Tom Cruise had been thinking of a career in the church before finding a job in the movies.
or
- Tom Cruise had been thinking of a career in the church before he found a job in the movies.
- Tom Cruise had thought of a career in the church before he found a job in the movies.
past-perfect past-perfect-continuous
past-perfect past-perfect-continuous
asked 2 days ago
SunnySideDownSunnySideDown
675
asked 2 days ago
SunnySideDownSunnySideDown
675
edited 2 days ago
SunnySideDown
asked 2 days ago
SunnySideDownSunnySideDown
675
asked 2 days ago
SunnySideDownSunnySideDown
675
asked 2 days ago
SunnySideDownSunnySideDown
675
675
add a comment |
add a comment |
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
All three of these sentences are grammatical as well. The past perfect tense is no better than the simple past tense in this situation; they're equally good. The word before tells you that the thinking happened, and then the finding happened afterwards.
answered 2 days ago
MixolydianMixolydian
3,581512
add a comment |
All of these are perfectly acceptable. The forms using "had been thinking" suggest a process of thought which extended over some time, but ended, either when the job was found, or before that. The for with "had thought" suggests a single instance of thought that occurred before the job was found.
But many native speakers will not make these fine distinctions, and may use any of the four forms in the question interchangeably, with no difference of meaning.
answered 2 days ago
David SiegelDavid Siegel
76111
New contributor
David Siegel is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
Your Answer
StackExchange.ready(function() {
var channelOptions = {
tags: "".split(" "),
id: "481"
};
initTagRenderer("".split(" "), "".split(" "), channelOptions);
StackExchange.using("externalEditor", function() {
// Have to fire editor after snippets, if snippets enabled
if (StackExchange.settings.snippets.snippetsEnabled) {
StackExchange.using("snippets", function() {
createEditor();
});
}
else {
createEditor();
}
});
function createEditor() {
StackExchange.prepareEditor({
heartbeatType: 'answer',
autoActivateHeartbeat: false,
convertImagesToLinks: false,
noModals: true,
showLowRepImageUploadWarning: true,
reputationToPostImages: null,
bindNavPrevention: true,
postfix: "",
imageUploader: {
brandingHtml: "Powered by u003ca class="icon-imgur-white" href="https://imgur.com/"u003eu003c/au003e",
contentPolicyHtml: "User contributions licensed under u003ca href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/"u003ecc by-sa 3.0 with attribution requiredu003c/au003e u003ca href="https://stackoverflow.com/legal/content-policy"u003e(content policy)u003c/au003e",
allowUrls: true
},
noCode: true, onDemand: true,
discardSelector: ".discard-answer"
,immediatelyShowMarkdownHelp:true
});
}
});
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fell.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f201024%2fusing-past-perfect-interchangeably-with-the-past-continuous%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
2 Answers
2
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
active
oldest
votes
All three of these sentences are grammatical as well. The past perfect tense is no better than the simple past tense in this situation; they're equally good. The word before tells you that the thinking happened, and then the finding happened afterwards.
answered 2 days ago
MixolydianMixolydian
3,581512
add a comment |
All three of these sentences are grammatical as well. The past perfect tense is no better than the simple past tense in this situation; they're equally good. The word before tells you that the thinking happened, and then the finding happened afterwards.
answered 2 days ago
MixolydianMixolydian
3,581512
add a comment |
All three of these sentences are grammatical as well. The past perfect tense is no better than the simple past tense in this situation; they're equally good. The word before tells you that the thinking happened, and then the finding happened afterwards.
answered 2 days ago
MixolydianMixolydian
3,581512
All three of these sentences are grammatical as well. The past perfect tense is no better than the simple past tense in this situation; they're equally good. The word before tells you that the thinking happened, and then the finding happened afterwards.
answered 2 days ago
MixolydianMixolydian
3,581512
answered 2 days ago
MixolydianMixolydian
3,581512
answered 2 days ago
MixolydianMixolydian
3,581512
answered 2 days ago
MixolydianMixolydian
3,581512
3,581512
add a comment |
add a comment |
All of these are perfectly acceptable. The forms using "had been thinking" suggest a process of thought which extended over some time, but ended, either when the job was found, or before that. The for with "had thought" suggests a single instance of thought that occurred before the job was found.
But many native speakers will not make these fine distinctions, and may use any of the four forms in the question interchangeably, with no difference of meaning.
answered 2 days ago
David SiegelDavid Siegel
76111
New contributor
David Siegel is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
All of these are perfectly acceptable. The forms using "had been thinking" suggest a process of thought which extended over some time, but ended, either when the job was found, or before that. The for with "had thought" suggests a single instance of thought that occurred before the job was found.
But many native speakers will not make these fine distinctions, and may use any of the four forms in the question interchangeably, with no difference of meaning.
answered 2 days ago
David SiegelDavid Siegel
76111
New contributor
David Siegel is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
All of these are perfectly acceptable. The forms using "had been thinking" suggest a process of thought which extended over some time, but ended, either when the job was found, or before that. The for with "had thought" suggests a single instance of thought that occurred before the job was found.
But many native speakers will not make these fine distinctions, and may use any of the four forms in the question interchangeably, with no difference of meaning.
answered 2 days ago
David SiegelDavid Siegel
76111
New contributor
David Siegel is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
All of these are perfectly acceptable. The forms using "had been thinking" suggest a process of thought which extended over some time, but ended, either when the job was found, or before that. The for with "had thought" suggests a single instance of thought that occurred before the job was found.
But many native speakers will not make these fine distinctions, and may use any of the four forms in the question interchangeably, with no difference of meaning.
answered 2 days ago
David SiegelDavid Siegel
76111
New contributor
David Siegel is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
answered 2 days ago
David SiegelDavid Siegel
76111
New contributor
David Siegel is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
answered 2 days ago
David SiegelDavid Siegel
76111
answered 2 days ago
David SiegelDavid Siegel
76111
76111
New contributor
David Siegel is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
David Siegel is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
David Siegel is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
add a comment |
add a comment |
Thanks for contributing an answer to English Language Learners Stack Exchange!
- Please be sure to answer the question. Provide details and share your research!
But avoid …
- Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers.
- Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience.
To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers.
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
StackExchange.ready(
function () {
StackExchange.openid.initPostLogin('.new-post-login', 'https%3a%2f%2fell.stackexchange.com%2fquestions%2f201024%2fusing-past-perfect-interchangeably-with-the-past-continuous%23new-answer', 'question_page');
}
);
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Sign up or log in
StackExchange.ready(function () {
StackExchange.helpers.onClickDraftSave('#login-link');
});
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Sign up using Google
Sign up using Facebook
Sign up using Email and Password
Post as a guest
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
Required, but never shown
