[Grammar] Using Past Perfect - confused

[Mrjojo]

Hi. this is my first post on this board so im pretty new here.

* I wanna say that i overcame my depression by joining a gym. is the sentence below correct form of using past perfect? if not, whats the correct way of saying it :

"I had overcome my depression by joining a gym"

thanks in advance

 

[emsr2d2]

Hi. This is my first post on this board so I'm pretty new here.

(No asterisk was required here.) I [strike]wanna[/strike] want to say that I overcame my depression by joining a gym. [strike]I[/strike][strike]s[/strike] Does the sentence below use the correct form of [strike]using[/strike] the past perfect? If not, what's the correct way of saying it?

"I had overcome my depression by joining a gym."

[strike]T[/strike][strike]hanks in advance. [/strike] Unnecessary. Thank us (only after we have been helpful) by clicking on the "Thank" button.

Welcome to the forum. :hi:

Please see my corrections to your post above. Remember to follow these basic rules of written English:

- Start every sentence with a capital letter.
- End every sentence with a single, appropriate punctuation mark.
- Always capitalise the word "I" (first person singular).
- Do not put a space before a full stop, comma, question mark or exclamation mark.
- Always put a space after a full stop, comma, question mark or exclamation mark.

There are other rules, of course, but those are the basic. Please don't use textspeak/chatlish on the forum - "wanna" is not a word. Use "want to".

In answer to your main question, why do you want to use the past perfect? There is nothing wrong with "I overcame my depression by joining a gym".

 

[Mrjojo]

Hi and thanks for the heads up. I just want to know how I can put that sentence in past perfect form.

 

[emsr2d2]

Well, in that case, your original was fine. It works the same way as any other regular verb.

(Present) I overcome my depression ...
(Simple past) I overcame my depression ...
(Present perfect) I have overcome my depression ...
(Past perfect) I had overcome my depression ...

 

[Rover_KE]

You need a reason to use the past perfect.

Click here for an explanation.

 

[Mrjojo]

You need a reason to use the past perfect.

Click here for an explanation.

"I was a depressed person, decided to join a gym and eventually managed to overcome my depression." past perfect suits this situation, am I correct?

 

[Rover_KE]

You have not used the past perfect in that sentence.

'I had overcome my depression before the earthquake struck.'

'By the time the new term started, I had overcome my depression.'

 

[Winwin2011]

You need a reason to use the past perfect.

Click here for an explanation.

To explain or give a reason for something in the past.

• I'd eaten dinner so I wasn't hungry.
• It had snowed in the night, so the bus didn't arrive.

Is it possible to use the past tense instead of the past perfect tense below?

• I ate dinner so I wasn't hungry.
• It snowed in the night, so the bus didn't arrive.

 

[Mrjojo]

Is it possible to use the past tense instead of the past perfect tense below?

• I ate dinner so I wasn't hungry.
• It snowed in the night, so the bus didn't arrive.

I may be wrong but I think we cant use past tense for these sentences.
Based what I understand, using past perfect in the following sentence is probably correct? "I had been depressed so I joined a gym"

 

[Matthew Wai]

"I had been depressed so I joined a gym"

If 'depressed' happened before 'joined a gym', then it should be correct to use the past perfect.

Not a teacher.