Diary - An episode of a TV drama reminded me of

[Maybo]

This is an entry from my diary. Please check it and correct any mistakes.

An episode of a TV drama reminded me of a mistake that my former colleague had make. I used to work in a private education organisation, which have partnerships with universities abroad. One day, someone told me that a colleague had mistakenly invited an overseas professor to come to our annual dinner in Hong Kong, and the professor could reimburse all the fee, including flight tickets. The most unexpected thing was that he accepted the invite. Our superior found it too embarrassing to tell the professor it was an oversight so we had no choice but accepted it.

 

[teechar]

my former colleague had make.

a private education organisation, which have partnerships

Two mistakes above.

and the professor could reimburse all the fee,

That's vague. What do you mean by it?

Our superior found it too embarrassing to tell the professor it was an oversight so we had no choice but accepted it.

What was the oversight?

 

[Maybo]

Two mistakes above.

“my former colleague had made" "a private education organisation, which has partnerships"

That's vague. What do you mean by it?

It included the flight tickets and hotel fee.

What was the oversight?

The colleague might have mistakenly sent an wrong email to a wrong professor. I didn't know why he would do that.

 

[Tarheel]

Call it a noun phrase. What am I talking about? This: a mistake my former colleague made.

 

[tedmc]

Do you mean your colleague invited the wrong professor to al all-expenses-paid dinner in Hong Kong and upon realising it, he was too embarrassed to withdraw the invitation? I don't find it embarrassing to rectify the mistake by cancelling the invitation.

 

[Maybo]

Do you mean your colleague invited the wrong professor to al all-expenses-paid dinner in Hong Kong and upon realising it, he was too embarrassed to withdraw the invitation? I don't find it embarrassing to rectify the mistake by cancelling the invitation.

The superior of the colleague found it embarrassing to withdraw the invitation.

 

[Tarheel]

The superior of the colleague WAS TOO EMBARRASSED to withdraw the invitation.

 

[emsr2d2]

An episode of a TV drama I saw recently reminded me of a mistake that one of my former colleagues had [once] made. I used to work in a private education organisation, which have has/had partnerships with universities abroad. One day, someone told me that a colleague had mistakenly invited an overseas professor to come to our annual dinner in Hong Kong, and the professor had told him that he could be reimbursed for all the fee associated costs of attending, including flight tickets. The most unexpected thing was that He accepted the invite. Our superior found thought it would be too embarrassing to tell the professor it was that inviting him had been an oversight error/a mistake so we had no choice but accepted it but to let him come and pay all his costs.

 

[Maybo]

Do people use the contraction of "colleague'd"? The system keep red-underlining it.

 

[Maybo]

Why do we not need to use the past perfect in "An episode of a TV drama I saw recently reminded me of a mistake that one of my former colleagues made."?

However, why do we need to use the past perfect in "Our superior thought it would be too embarrassing to tell the professor that inviting him had been a mistake so we had no choice but to let him come and pay all his costs".

 

[emsr2d2]

Do people use the contraction of "colleague'd"? The system keep red-underlining it.

I'm not sure what you're referring to. Even in speech, we wouldn't contract "colleague had" to "colleague'd", so we certainly don't do it in writing. If you're thinking of the way someone might not entirely pronounce "had", then what comes out is more like "colleague uhd made". I'm sure someone who can do phonetic symbols can make that clearer for you.

You can only shorten the "had" of a past perfect verb if it's preceded by a pronoun, but not by a noun.

I'd made
He'd made
They'd made

The man'd made
My colleague'd made
Her friends'd made

 

[Tarheel]

Do people use the contraction of "colleague'd"? The system KEPT red-underlining it.

That seems to be a contraction you invented. I don't recommend that learners invent their own contractions.

 

[Tarheel]

Why do we not need to use the past perfect in "An episode of a TV drama I saw recently reminded me of a mistake that one of my former colleagues made."?

I thought I explained that one.

 

[Tarheel]

However, why do we need to use the past perfect in "Our superior thought it would be too embarrassing to tell the professor that inviting him had been a mistake so we had no choice but to let him come and pay all his costs".

For the same reason we normally use that form.

 

[Maybo]

For the same reason we normally use that form.

For what reason?

 

[Maybo]

I thought I explained that one.

You didn't explain. You just called it a noun phrase.

 

[Maybo]

"An episode of a TV drama I saw recently reminded me of a mistake that one of my former colleagues made."

Isn't it that the mistake happened before the episode reminded me of that mistake?

 

[Tarheel]

You didn't explain. You just called it a noun phrase.

That was my explanation. A noun phrase acts like same as any other noun. It's simply more than one word.

 

[Tarheel]

Isn't it that the mistake THAT happened before the episode THAT reminded me of that mistake?

That could be.

 

[Maybo]

That was my explanation. A noun phrase acts like same as any other noun. It's simply more than one word.

Do you mean that when we use a noun phrase, we don’t use the perfect tense?