A
allthewayanime
Guest
Could I use the past perfect after the main clause if I want to imply that it was time for him to have gone to college ?
e.g It was high time he had gone to college.
e.g It was high time he had gone to college.
... but it might happen, if the speaker's mental sentence were 'It's high time he had left home... By now he should surely have gone to college[?]' - and s/he just didn't say the words in red - leaving a 'sentence' with the wrong tense. (I've said this before, and I'm sure I'll say it again: the grammar of spoken English tends to be a mangled version of two or three 'candidate' sentences). ;-)
But is it acceptable to say "It's high time he had left home"? I don't think it is. For me, "it's (high) time ..." can be followed only by something that must be done after the utterance.... but it might happen, if the speaker's mental sentence were 'It's high time he had left home... By now he should surely have gone to college[?]' - and s/he just didn't say the words in red - leaving a 'sentence' with the wrong tense.
But if I want to say it this way, is it wrong?
1.It was high time he had gone to college.(meaning that he should already have gone.) No, this is not correct and it doesn't mean that he should already have gone.
Because when I say :
2.It was high time he went to college (would mean he should go now.) Sorry, this too is incorrect. If you want to say that he should go to college now, it would be something like 'It's high time he goes to college or It's high time he leaves for...
"It's (high) time he went.."has a similar meaning to: "It is (high) time for him to go".
That's my feeling. I was a little too brief in my last post.I seem to remember reading somewhere that there is (may be) a slight difference in the meaning:
a) It's time for him to leave. = The correct time has arrived.
b) It's time he went. = It's already a bit late.
I agree.He says it is time he went. :tick: ---> He said it was time he had gone. :cross:
I am almost 100% certain that in this case the verb form remains the same. (That is, "He said it was time he went." :tick: )
But is it acceptable to say "It's high time he had left home"? I don't think it is. For me, "it's (high) time ..." can be followed only by something that must be done after the utterance.