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fw
Joined: 12 Oct 2005
Posts: 361
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 Posted: Fri May 31, 2013 10:29 pm Post subject: He <had been/was> a cook for 40 years before he retire |
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I am putting a sentence in Japanese into English. Here are two of the sentences that I have made.
1. He had been a cook for forty years before he retired.
2. He was a cook for forty years before he retired.
I think #1 is good, but I am not sure about #2. Is #2 also natural and good English? |
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Lorikeet
Joined: 08 Oct 2005
Posts: 1877
Location: San Francisco
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| Posted: Sun Jun 09, 2013 9:05 pm Post subject: Re: He <had been/was> a cook for 40 years before he re |
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| fw wrote: |
I am putting a sentence in Japanese into English. Here are two of the sentences that I have made.
1. He had been a cook for forty years before he retired.
2. He was a cook for forty years before he retired.
I think #1 is good, but I am not sure about #2. Is #2 also natural and good English? |
I would accept either one of them. Some people would probably prefer #1, but I think the past perfect is slowly disappearing, and isn't used as much as it used to be. In this case, the meaning of the sentence is clear. It also depends on how formal or informal you want to be. |
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