Had been.

[Ashraful Haque]

I know 'have been' is present perfect, and 'had been' is past perfect tense. I also know the we say 'had been' when referring to something that began in the past and was still true at another time that also was in the past.

I have two questions about this.
Q1) I was summarizing the information on a graph which showed information about between 1974 and 2002.

Overall, roads had been the most popular way of transport among importers over the years.
Although there had been a few hiccups along the way, over the period the popularity of roads rose from around 70 million tonnes to almost 100 million tonnes.


Since I was writing from the present perspective, I though 'had been' would be correct here. Are the sentences correct?

Q2) If I say "I had been married six years when my son was born," does it say anything about my current marital status?

 

[Tarheel]

If I say "I had been married six years when my son was born" does it say anything about my current marital status?

No, it does not.

As for roads as a means of transport, I think you are talking about trucks.

 

[GoesStation]

Both sentences in Q1 need the past simple.

 

[teechar]

Can you post a picture of the graph?

 

[Tarheel]

We use have been if something was true in the past and is still true now.

have been

Trucks have been a major means of transport for over seventy years.

had been

They had been writing things the same way for hundreds and hundreds of years. The printing press changed everything.

 

[Tdol]

You have the years in the past. I would use the past tense in both cases, not the past perfect.

 

[Ashraful Haque]

Can you post a picture of the graph?

Why not!

 

[Ashraful Haque]

If I say "I had been married six years when my son was born" does it say anything about my current marital status?

No, it does not.

As for roads as a means of transport, I think you are talking about trucks.

We use have been if something was true in the past and is still true now.


have been


Trucks have been a major means of transport for over seventy years.


had been


They had been writing things the same way for hundreds and hundreds of years. The printing press changed everything.

Are you saying that I should use the past tense since it doesn't say anything about the present.

 

[Tarheel]

Are you saying that I should use the past tense since it doesn't say anything about the present?

You said it.

 

[teechar]

Why not!

After seeing that graph I can tell you that your sentences in post #1 should not use the past perfect. Use the past simple and write clear and straightforward sentences. In such exercises, you get much better marks if you focus on substance (describing features, analysis, interpolation) instead of writing complicated/convoluted sentences.

 

[Tarheel]

What teechar said.
;-)

Remember KISS.*

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*Keep it simple, stupid!
;-)