[shun]

Originally Posted by riverkid

Here's another example.
"I was wondering if you could just drop me off over there."
The 'wondering' is not a finished event; 'was', a past tnese FORM is used to make a more deferential request, a more polite request. It has nothing at all to do with time.

My reply: I am afraid you have totally lost the idea why you brought up the idea of discussing the pattern of "Did you want something to eat?"

What is the pattern of these examples as in the following?
Ex: "Did you want to eat something?"
Ex: "I was wondering if you could just drop me off over there."
Ex: "Where did you want to travel?"
Ex: "I were phoning to ask..."

See also the following point:

I compared "Did you eat something?" with "Did you want something to eat?". You wrote:

Originally Posted by riverkid

I don't have the faintest idea what you're trying to say here, Shun.

My reply: Now I do believe that you don't have any idea why you have bought up and discuss "Did you want something to eat?"

You came to the food shop, and the shopkeeper asked "Did you want something to eat?" You didn't eat anything yet, but he already used Simple Past to ask, so some people find it is hard to explain. Therefore, they use 'politeness' to explain that.

So I have pointed out, if in the same situation, will the shopkeeper use Simple Past "Did you eat something?" to ask you? No, because it is not past.

Or why did you bring up "Did you want something to eat?" at all? I am afraid you have not the faintest idea.
Did you just want to claim Simple Past is more polite than Simple Present? Or what?

---------------------

Originally Posted by riverkid

Please start a new posting for this issue.

My reply: This present thread discusses the use of tenses in news. I have also posted the news example in this thread, so I think it is a proper place to discuss the tenses in it here. You may have skipped it, but it is more proper for you to start a new thread for discussing "Did you want something to eat?"

Here I go back to the tense of the news and remind you of the time flow:

You replied: <<You will have to provide examples, Shun. In the one example that you gave before, Past Perfect would have been grammatically inappropriate.>>

Then I reminded you that in the one example of news, there are also Past Perfect, which you incorrectly judged as inappropriate.

In the news, Past Perfect is used side by side with Present Perfect, as mystical as SAYS is used in some other news side by side with SAID. You can explain none of the two pairs.

Here are the Past Perfect examples that you have missed and asked me to provide:
1. We ask that European solidarity is expressed as soon as possible about Lebanon," Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy TOLD France Info radio, adding he had asked EU president Finland to call a meeting in Brussels early next week.
2. France has pledged to send only 200 extra troops to Lebanon, disappointing Washington and the United Nations, which had hoped it would form the backbone of an expanded U.N. force.
== What is the difference between Present Perfect and Past Perfect?

Will you still insist "In the one example that you gave before, Past Perfect would have been grammatically inappropriate"?