Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[rajesh kumar]

"Had i offended you in the past?"

what is wrong in this sentence?
please explain me.

[MauraS]

Nothing is technically wrong with this sentence. But there is no context.

The subject of your post was "past tense" and this sentence is not past tense.

Past tense is....

Did I offend you in the past?

The sentence you wrote, "Had I offended you in the past?" is the past perfect tense.

Hope this helps!

www.culips.com

[m_prime]

Hi Rajesh

[rajesh kumar]

thank you. but where should we use past perfect tense?
past perfect of "offend" is "had offended". am not sure but if you tell me i will accept. waiting for your reply

[rajesh kumar]

"Had you studied English before you moved to New York? "
this is what they have posted in "www.englishpage.com"
past perfect tense of study is "had studied" am i right?

i know the rules but i don't know when to use past perfect tense.
just explain me one more time m_prime

[m_prime]

Hi Rajesh

I have not seen www.englishpage.com before but it is a pretty good website.

You would use the past perfect tense to refer to something that has clearly happened (and finished) in the past. Take another look at the diagrams at http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/pastperfect.html, they should make it pretty clear.

As you probably know, the verb 'offend' is slightly complicated. It means that person A has not only done something wrong but that person B is still upset or angry about it and has not forgiven person A.

To know which tense to use, as MauraS said, we need to know some of the context. Is person B still offended? Look at the two examples below, hopefully they will make it clear.

Perfect present
Person A and B do not like each other.

Person B: "Do you know why I don't like you?"
Person A: "No, have I offended you in the past?"

Perfect past
Person A and B are good friends, they are discussing the past and how they became friends.

Person B: "When we first met I really didn't like you"
Person A: "Really? Had I offended you in the past?"

If you don't have any more of the context then I would use the perfect present. This situation is far more common and would seem the most natural to me.

[rajesh kumar]

yes i totally agree with you.
so the sentence means that i had offended him some time in the past but not now and also the sentence is not grammatically wrong, am i correct?

past perfect means that the action took place in the past and have no connection now. am i correct?

if i am wrong please let me know.

[m_prime]

I think you understand but whether the sentence is grammatically wrong or not depends on context (sorry I can't be more definite) . Is person B still offended?

Your definition of past perfect is pretty accurate, although it might be better to say that it relates to an action that began and ended in the past, it may stll have a connection to the present (in conditional sentences for example).

[rajesh kumar]

thank you very much for your help.
but finally confirm me one thing that the sentence is not grammatically wrong but the meaning would be slightly different from that of
"have offended". thank you for spending time to clear my doubt

[m_prime]

The sentence is grammatically correct if the person has stopped being offended.

If they are still offended, then it is incorrect.