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Old 29-Jul-2007, 15:32
thomasRavenelli thomasRavenelli is offline
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Default past and past participle

Hi,

I am trying to improve my English by reading fiction. From the “Poor Folk” for Dostoevsky I found this paragraph which I believe It will take me years to write a similar thing in terms of tenses (which is my major weakness in English). “The dealer would not let the set go for a kopek less than the sum he had named. But I pleaded and pleaded and at last after I had left and returned several times he relented and reduced the price by another two rubles.”
What is going here in terms of tenses? when should we use past particple and when should not? would not go happened “after” he had named the price and she pleaded “before” she had left . still the actions were in the past tense before and after the past participle. It is quite confusing. Can someone explain the usage of the past and past participle in this paragraph?
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