regretted to have bothered him/tenses

[navi tasan]

Can one say:
1-I was sorry to bother him the night before.
instead of:
2-I was sorry to have bothered him the night before.


Can one say:
3-I regretted to bother him the night before.
instead of:
4-I regretted to have bothered him the night before.


Can one say:
5-I was ashamed to bother him the night before.
instead of:
6-I was ashamed to have bothered him the night before.

Gratefully,
Navi.

 

[emsr2d2]

Can one say:
1-I was sorry to bother him the night before.
instead of:
2-I was sorry to have bothered him the night before.


Can one say:
3-I regretted to bother him the night before.
instead of:
4-I regretted to have bothered him the night before.


Can one say:
5-I was ashamed to bother him the night before.
instead of:
6-I was ashamed to have bothered him the night before.

Gratefully,
Navi.

We don't follow "to regret" in the past tense with the infinitive. "I regretted bothering him the night before" or "I regretted having bothered him the night before".

 

[raphey]

***Not a teacher***

I don't have a strong sense of right vs wrong with the examples you gave- both statements in each pair sound ok to me. Also, while I agree with emsr2d2 about regret not usually being used with an infinitive, there are a few notable exceptions, like "I regret to say that" and "we regret to inform you that," both of which are pretty common. It seems to me that these expressions don't sound right in any tense except the present.

Raphey

 

[emsr2d2]

***Not a teacher***

I don't have a strong sense of right vs wrong with the examples you gave- both statements in each pair sound ok to me. Also, while I agree with emsr2d2 about regret not usually being used with an infinitive, there are a few notable exceptions, like "I regret to say that" and "we regret to inform you that," both of which are pretty common. It seems to me that these expressions don't sound right in any tense except the present.

Raphey

Thanks and you are right, of course. I have edited to my post to show that I meant that we don't follow it with the infinitive when we are using the past tense for "regret".

 

[Rover_KE]

***Not a teacher***

Welcome to the forums, Raphey:hi:. Your first post was a very useful contribution.

Please edit your profile, as you appear to be both a teacher and not a teacher.

Thank you.

Rover

 

[navi tasan]

Thank you all very much and welcome to the forum Raphey.

I am not sure that i have understood how this works. Would you say these sentences are OK.

A-I am sorry to bother John last night.
B-I am ashamed to bother John last night.

Gratefully,
Navi.

 

[Rover_KE]

'I am sorry I bothered John last night.'

'I am ashamed to have bothered John last night.'