I had put up with the situation for a couple of months

[GeneD]

My new boss worked very hard, spending all his time in the office. He expected the same level of commitment from his employees. He said each time, "If you don't work overtime, you will let the team down". I had put up with the situation for a couple of months without complaining, before finally I had to confront him.

Why is the past perfect used in the last sentence? Is that because the narrative is in the past and there is a period of time (for a couple of months)?

Is it possible to use the past continuous instead of the past perfect there (I was putting up)? Well, now, I've written the questions above, it seems to me it isn't , but I'm not sure.

 

[teechar]

GeneD, please edit your post to insert a closing quotation mark.

 

[GeneD]

GeneD, please edit your post to insert a closing quotation mark.

I didn't notice. Thanks. I've changed it now.

 

[emsr2d2]

What did you mean by "He said each time ..."? Did you mean "He regularly/frequently said", "Every day, he said ..." or "He said, each time an employee tried to go home on time, ..."?

 

[GeneD]

I'm not the author of this text, so I can only guess. I understand it as "regularly/frequently".

 

[emsr2d2]

If you're not the author, you need to tell us who is. It's important that you give the author and source of any text you quote.

 

[GeneD]

It's an excerpt from the tests being used in Belarus. Who the author is I can't tell (there is no name on the testbook for some reason), but I think it could be some non-native English speaker, most likely some native Russian speaker.

BTW, what do you call a book with tests only, without any grammar rules? My guess was "testbooks", but it's only a guess.

 

[GeneD]

What did you mean by "He said each time ..."? Did you mean "He regularly/frequently said", "Every day, he said ..." or "He said, each time an employee tried to go home on time, ..."?

Did you ask it because "He said it each time" sounds odd to you, or because this clause might change the context and make it possible to use the past perfect in the last sentence?