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Chan-Seung Lee
Joined: 03 Dec 2005
Posts: 1032
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 Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 8:34 am Post subject: the meaning and ..... |
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| Quote: |
1.His mother was chatting and didn't notice that he had fallen behind.
2.She hurt her ankle and had fallen behind the others. |
I have two questions about the above examples.
First, I'd like to know the meaning of #1.
Second, I think #2 is wrong grammatically because first she hurt her ankle and then she fell behind the others. So, I think that 'She had hurt her ankle and so she fell behind the others.' is right instead of #2. But I am not sure. Please let me know.
Thanks. |
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ESL-ish
Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 44
Location: Arizona
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| Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2006 10:09 am Post subject: |
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In both sentences, the choice of perfect, simple or progressive verb form is made to show the time relationships between the actions.
Ok, let's start with #1.
| Quote: |
| 1.His mother was chatting and didn't notice that he had fallen behind. |
Here is the situation. Mother, son and others are moving, traveling, or walking. Mother is not paying attention to son, because she is chatting with someone. Perhaps the son sits down and the others continue to walk. She didn't notice when he started to fall behind. She didn't notice when he was a little ways behind. She didn't even notice when he was clearly not with the group anymore. Mom is in a power chat and completly misses the fact that son is no longer there. That chatting is very much continuing and that left behind is clearly complete.
So someone asks, "Why didn't she wait for her son?" And #1 says, "His mother was chatting and didn't notice that he had fallen behind."
Now for #2.
| Quote: |
| 2. She hurt her ankle and had fallen behind the others. |
Sue hurt her ankle. As is the habit of ankles, it will stay hurt for a long time. Sue may have to use crutches for a few weeks. This does not mean that Sue is still beating on it with a hammer, just that the ankle will take some time to heal. Thus we use the simple past tense.
When Sue started out everything was fine. But, because Sue hurt her ankle, she was not able to keep up with the group and she fell behind. Then something happened when she was completly behind the group.
Someone asks, " Sue is a member of the track team. Why wasn't she out running on the road with the team when they were hit by a bus yesterday?"
And #2 says, "She started out with them that day. But when the accident happened she wasn't there. She hurt her ankle and had fallen behind the others."
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Warning: I have a dictionary and I'm not afraid to use it! |
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