[Grammar] "The family had only moved to the house 4 months ago."

[andi harper]

Hey, guys. How would explain the use of Past Perfect in this sentence?
"The family had only moved to the house 4 months ago."

 

[bhaisahab]

What is the context?

 

[andi harper]

What is the context?

It's an example in the dictionary http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/move 1.2 Change one’s place of residence or work.

 

[andi harper]

Isn't "ago" supposed to be used with past simple?

 

[Matthew Wai]

I think it could be followed by an act in the simple past like 'However, they moved away two months afterwards.'

 

[emsr2d2]

I would use "ago" with the past simple and "earlier" with the past perfect.

They moved to the house two months ago.
They had moved to the house two months earlier.

 

[andi harper]

I would use "ago" with the past simple and "earlier" with the past perfect.

They moved to the house two months ago.
They had moved to the house two months earlier.

Does this mean that the dictionary provides an ungrammatical example? I actually come across such use of past perfect a lot when I look up a word.

 

[bubbha]

Hey, guys. How would explain the use of Past Perfect in this sentence?
"The family had only moved to the house 4 months ago."

By itself, it sounds strange to me. I would change "ago" to "before".

 

[Raymott]

'Earlier' and 'before' might not fix the context. "The family sold the house they had moved to only four months ago."
We don't know when they sold the house.

 

[Matthew Wai]

I actually come across such use of past perfect a lot when I look up a word.

So do I, sometimes. I would assume there is an act in the simple past in the context, as the one in my post#5.

 

[andi harper]

How would you explain this past perfect use?
A few months ago I had not even heard of your agency.

 

[GoesStation]

If the writer were writing this a few months ago, they would have written "I have never heard of your agency." They would have used the present perfect to describe the situation in the present.

Now that a few months have passed, they use the past perfect to describe the situation as it was at a named time in the past.

 

[andi harper]

If the writer were writing this a few months ago, they would have written "I have never heard of your agency." They would have used the present perfect to describe the situation in the present.

Now that a few months have passed, they use the past perfect to describe the situation as it was at a named time in the past.

Could it still be used with past simple?
Many thanks.

 

[andi harper]

A few months ago I had not even heard of your agency.

Let's say a few months was actually five months ago so at that moment I didn't know about the agency's existence but at some point near that time I was informed about it so since the day I was told up to the moment of me talking to the person in the present was the period of me knowing which is considered as a second past action while me not knowing was the first past action. Is that why past perfect used?

 

[GoesStation]

Let's say a few months was actually five months ago so at that moment I didn't know about the agency's existence but at some point near that time I was informed about it so since the day I was told up to the moment of me talking to the person in the present was the period of me knowing which is considered as a second past action while me not knowing was the first past action. Is that why past perfect used?

Writing about these issues is difficult. Nevertheless, I hope you can revise that to make your meaning clearer. Hopefully the result will be two or three shorter sentences.

 

[GoesStation]

Actually, you could probably make four or five decent sentences from that.

 

[andi harper]

How about an example like this that I heard:
A little while ago I didn't even know you existed.

 

[andi harper]

That's fine.

How is it different from A few months ago I had not even known about your agency?

 

[GoesStation]

How about an example like this that I heard:
A little while ago I didn't even know you existed.

How is it different from A few months ago I had not even known about your agency?

The first uses the helping verb to do in the simple past to negate the statement "I knew you existed." We use to do+not+bare infinitive to make simple past statements negative.

The second uses the helping verb to have, which is part of the past perfect construction, plus not to negate the statement I had known about your agency. It is not natural to say A few months ago I had known about your agency.

 

[jutfrank]

Does this mean that the dictionary provides an ungrammatical example? I actually come across such use of past perfect a lot when I look up a word.

Not really. We would need to see more of the text to know whether it's ungrammatical. But as an example sentence in isolation, it sounds like it ought to be corrected, to either past simple or to earlier/previously. Therefore it's not a great example. But remember that dictionary makers are no authorities on grammar, and the point here is to exemplify use of vocabulary, i.e., move.