Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[tcom]

Dear teachers,

Are the following sentences correct?
Please correct errors if any.

1) I remembered that a member of my part-time job had emphasized that we should be polite to all customers.

2) He revealed that he saw one of his friends rob the store of some goods.

Thanks in advance.

[battlecryorsilence]

1) I remembered that a co-worker of mine/one of my co-workers at my part-time job had emphasized that we should be polite to all customers.


2) He revealed that he had seen one of his friends rob the store.
OR
2) He revealed that he had seen one of his friends stealing merchandise/some things/some goods/some items from the store.
OR
2) He revealed that he had witnessed one of his friends robbing the store.

[2006]

There is nothing wrong with using simple past tense in sentence #2, or in #1.
I also think that sentence #2 is perfectly fine as it is.

[tcom]

Thank you very much for your replies!

There is one more question:
What's the difference between following two sentences?

1) He revealed that he saw one of his friends rob the store.
2) He revealed that he had seen one of his friends rob the store.

I also want to know the difference between following two sentences.

1) I remembered that one of my co-workers at my part-time job had emphasized that we should be polite to all customers.
2) I remembered that one of my co-workers at my part-time job emphasized that we should be polite to all customers.

Thanks.

[battlecryorsilence]

Hi tcom,

1) He revealed that he saw one of his friends rob the store.
2) He revealed that he had seen one of his friends rob the store.

What's the difference? Two answers:
1. The technical/grammatical answer: Sentence (1) employs the simple past, whereas (2) employs past perfect. Both (1) and (2) are grammatically correct. (I agree with 2006: the simple past is fine � thanks for pointing that out to tcom, 2006!) However,
2. The past perfect can also be used to emphasize an affirmative statement. I think that when I was imagining a context for your sentence, I was hearing it in something like the following manner:
After weeks of refusing to answer the investigator�s questions about the robbery, he revealed that he had seen one of his friends rob the store.


1) I remembered that one of my co-workers at my part-time job had emphasized that we should be polite to all customers.
2) I remembered that one of my co-workers at my part-time job emphasized that we should be polite to all customers.

Here, again, the grammatical difference is that �emphasize� in (1) is in the past perfect tense; in (2), it�s in simple past tense. (1) tells us more clearly that the co-worker emphasized this belief over some duration of time, whereas (2) can be used to say that the co-worker emphasized this belief on one specific occasion in the past. Again, both are grammatically correct.

I should clarify that the only thing that actually needed correcting in your original post was the use of the word �member� instead of �co-worker�. Again, 2006 is right to say that there�s nothing wrong with sentence (2), with the minor exception that, in ordinary conversation, we tend to use �steal� more regularly with an object than �rob�. I just wanted to offer you some choices among the various possible constructions.

Hope this is helpful to you!

[tcom]

I'd always been confused what tense I should use in these sentences.
I understand detailed differences about them.
Thank you very much for your help

[gloria_taipei]

I benefit from battlecryorsilence's detailed explanation as well.

[2006]

I think it must be said that some of us believe that past perfect tense and simple past tense have exactly the same meaning. For example, I personally think it is unjustified to say that one means that something was done over some duration of time while the other was done on one specific occasion. To me, they both simply mean that something was done.

Of course, what I just said does not apply to those situations in which the perfect tense is the only correct way to say something.

Sorry for the disagreement, but this needs to be said for completeness sake.