Please explain the sentence

[farhankhan2007]

I need to know please which incident happened first, as I understand 'had is used with a previous past'. However reading the statement I think this event happened first "even the folks from the stokes county and Reagan both told her not to worry about it." If yes than how is the usage of past perfect justified here.

She had spent her time in the hospital stressing about not working on the painting, even the folks from the stokes county and Reagan both told her not to worry about it.


Thank you.

 

[Barb_D]

If you have copied the sentence exactly as it appeared, there are capitalization errors and the use of "both" is questionable, and it has erroneous punctuation.

I assume what came next talked about what she did as soon as she was released from the hospital. The "had spent" sets the hospitalization as coming before whatever comes next.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

Yes, it's kind of a mess. Can you check it? "Both" implies just two people, and you have at least three. And unless there's a word missing, that should be two sentences, not one.

But to answer your question, you have, indeed, spotted something fishy. Technically, I agree that it should say that the Stokes County folks and Reagan had told her.

However, since there can be no doubt that their telling came before her stressing, the phrasing would not bother a native English speaker. At worst, we might think it's lazy English, but I don't think many people would see a need to fix it.

 

[farhankhan2007]

Thank you Charlie and Barb, here is the complete text
There is one more Similar sentence, I can share if you would allow me to.
.

 

[GoesStation]

You might find it a useful exercise to transcribe that sentence again. In addition to missing some essential capital letters, you left out several critical words.

I would have used the past perfect: ...even though the folks... had told her not to worry about it.

 

[farhankhan2007]

Hello GoesStation,

Thank you for your input.

I am really sorry I did not get what you mean by "You might find it a useful exercise to transcribe that sentence again. In addition to missing some essential capital letters, you left out several critical words."

I have attached the image in my previous post though.

Thanks.

 

[GoesStation]

I meant it would be good practice if you typed the sentence from the book again, very carefully. You didn't copy the whole thing in post #1.

 

[farhankhan2007]

Oh, I see, Sorry about it. I will be careful next time.
So I am still confused which incident happened first, you said you would have written it this way "...even though the folks... had told her not to worry about it."
So what about the text in the book, is it not correct? because as far as I understand the had + Past Perfect should be used to address an event which happened before the simple past.
I am bit confused here.

 

[GoesStation]

If I were editing that book, I would change the sentence to use the past perfect in its second clause. As you said, the action described in that clause occurs before the action in the previous clause. This calls for the past perfect. It's a good example of the kind of mistake native Anglophones may make in their writing.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

. . . So what about the text in the book, is it not correct? because as far as I understand the had + Past Perfect should be used to address an event which happened before the simple past.
I am bit confused here.

Again: Yes, you're right about the tense. But it's clear which happened first, so we can forgive some harmless short-hand. Most readers wouldn't even notice the error.

 

[emsr2d2]

Farhankhan, I have deleted your last two posts because they are completely unnecessary. There is no reason to write a new post to say "Thank you" to anyone. Simply click on the "Thank" button (as you have done).