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flaco · Joined: 27 Dec 2003 Posts: 30 Location: Brooklyn

is this correct?

"He hadn`t eaten ramen since he`d moved."

or this :

"He hadn`t eaten ramen since he moved."

or:

"He hadn`t eaten ramen since moving."

johnslat · Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2004 3:25 pm Post subject:

Dear flacco,
Sentence 1

shmooj · Joined: 11 Sep 2003 Posts: 1758 Location: Seoul, ROK

John's right. However, this sentence would be be right too:

He hadn't eaten ramen since he'd moved.

...if you consider that since here means because thus placing both the eating and moving prior to the time in mind.

I don't think that it was meant to in the OP though...

monkey_z · Joined: 22 Jun 2004 Posts: 26 Location: Aichi

Actually, both of them are wrong.

It should be: He has not eaten ramen since he moved. You can't have two of them.

johnslat · Posted: Tue Jun 22, 2004 9:08 pm Post subject:

Dear monkey_z,

monkey_z · Joined: 22 Jun 2004 Posts: 26 Location: Aichi

There are "time clues" when using perfect tenses. Your sentence indicates an action that started in the past and continues into the present or has just been completed. Example: He hasn't eaten ramen since he moved......"SINCE" is the "TIME CLUE" Grammatically it should be written in "Present Perfect" Tense!

As you well know, "Past Perfect" Tense shows action that something took place before a specific time in the past. The past perfect tense of regular verbs is formed by combining "had" with "the base form of the verb" plus "ed".

I find this very interesting .....I am new to the forum....I may learn something, but I think that your explaination was strange. I am here trying to make friends Wink

monkey_z · Joined: 22 Jun 2004 Posts: 26 Location: Aichi

I got hit in the forehead with a tac hammer before I read you guys' post, so forgive me.

johnslat · Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2004 3:19 am Post subject:

Dear monkey_z,
Ah, those darn tac hammers - you really have to watch out for them. Sneaky little devils; I used to have one. When it went after the neighbor's kids, though, well, I had to get rid of it.
But there's nothing to forgive. Welcome to Dave's; hope you enjoy your time here and can both get and give some help along the way.
Regards,
John

T-Bone · Joined: 21 May 2004 Posts: 33 Location: Phnom Penh

johnslat · Posted: Wed Jun 23, 2004 11:35 am Post subject: Context is ALL

Dear monkey_z,
You know - I've been giving this question some thought over the past couple of days (Cripes, I really should get a life), and it seems to me that the problem here is the LACK of context.
This sentence -

"He hadn't eaten eaten ramen since he moved."

seems odd - because the past perfect action (which should precede the past action in time) comes AFTER the past action (i.e. "moved") here.
So, in order for it to make good grammatical sense, more context would be needed - something like:

He ate ramen last week for the first time in years. He hadn't eaten ramen since he moved (here from Tokyo in 1998).

By the way - what the heck IS ramen?

Regards,
John
P.S. Never mind - I did a web search:

http://mattfischer.com/ramen/

http://www.nissinfoods.com/

guest of Japan · Joined: 28 Feb 2003 Posts: 1601 Location: Japan

johnslat, the webpages you have there do not do ramen justice.

You have to come to Japan for the real thing. Although personally, I like cold soba better.