Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[fw]

Hello everyone.

I understand you can rewrite the following sentence into sentence #1. Is it possible then to rewrite the same sentence into sentence #2?

�As I had been there before, I found the shop at once.�
1. Having there before, I found the shop at once.
2. Being there before, I found the shop at once.

Best regards,
fw

[Lorikeet]

[ebb]

As I had been there before, I found the shop at once.�
1. Having there before, I found the shop at once.
2. Being there before, I found the shop at once.


2 is in the wrong tense. "I found" is in the past tense, so you can immediately see that "being there" can't be correct, since your (past) physical presence in the shop must have occurred prior to your "finding it at once", which quick-finding itself took place in the past.

1 is elegant once you correct it to include the "been" between "having" and "there" -- more direct and colloquial, but less elegant, is the simple "I had been there before, so I found the shop at once." This also might help you sort out the correct tenses....at the cost of the elegance found in Lori's rewrite.... imho.


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