englishhobby
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- Joined
- Jun 19, 2009
- Member Type
- English Teacher
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- Russian
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- Russian Federation
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- Russian Federation
I am struggling with the use of the past perfect tense. I know that sometimes you can use the past perfect only once as the story goes and then, when it's clear for the reader that the events had been happening before some time in the past, you can switch to the past simple even though you mean the earlier events (if you know what I mean). So once you have indicated that the action HAD HAPPENED, you can go on talking about that earlier action using the past simple, not necessarily the past perfect. (I have read about it in different grammar comments at different times in my life)
With that in mind, could you please tell me if it's possible to exchange the past perfect form of the verb go (in bold) in the following passage for the past simple form?
I felt really tired when I took the train to work yesterday because Sarah and I had been to a party the evening before. We hadn’t gone to bed until after one. I hadn’t been on the train long when I had a bit of a shock. I suddenly realised that I had left my wallet at home. Then I began to wonder. Had I left it in the office the day before? I just couldn’t remember. I wanted to go back to bed. I felt awful.
(The passage is from Grammar Practice Intermediate by Elaine Warker and Steve Elsworth)
With that in mind, could you please tell me if it's possible to exchange the past perfect form of the verb go (in bold) in the following passage for the past simple form?
I felt really tired when I took the train to work yesterday because Sarah and I had been to a party the evening before. We hadn’t gone to bed until after one. I hadn’t been on the train long when I had a bit of a shock. I suddenly realised that I had left my wallet at home. Then I began to wonder. Had I left it in the office the day before? I just couldn’t remember. I wanted to go back to bed. I felt awful.
(The passage is from Grammar Practice Intermediate by Elaine Warker and Steve Elsworth)
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