It is high time ...

[enydia]

Hello, everyone.

I have a question about the construction 'it is high time'.

Take the following sentence for example:
It is time that we went home.

If I change the tense of the main clause to simple past, i.e. it was time, is it necessary to change the tense of the subordinate clause?
Which is grammatically correct, 'it was time that we went home' or 'it was time that we had gone home'?

Thanks in advance.

Enydia

[Soup]

Have a look here first:

other areas - it's high/about time - grammar - central - British Council - LearnEnglish

[banderas]

Originally Posted by enydia

Hello, everyone.

I have a question about the construction 'it is high time'.

Take the following sentence for example:
It is time that we went home.

If I change the tense of the main clause to simple past, i.e. it was time, is it necessary to change the tense of the subordinate clause?
Which is grammatically correct, 'it was time that we went home' or 'it was time that we had gone home'?

Thanks in advance.

Enydia

To be honest, I would not change the tense of the subordinate clause.
"It was high time we went home" is my choice.
Like in:
"Certainly the comments of passers-by were very favourable, most saying it was high time something was done, that the path had been in a shocking state, etc."