Past perfect and using before/after after/by/by any time/place. A very good past perfect is what it is and using before/after.
My friend and I have a debate about the following sentences and what to slot into the gap: ______
we had finished the course, we received certificates. How
do I use the word of the sentence: before/after?
(We completed the course; we received certificates after that), of which certificate depends. We will keep on a same course during the course 2 years.)
After we had finished a course, we received certificates. I got certificates before completion of course. However, we may not get certificates in time.
An act expressed in the past perfect (“had finished”) must always be the preceding action, followed by the past simple (“received certificates”) and so it is ungrammatical to use “before” again.
What is the grammatical interpretation of the Grammatical Code? What is the correct interpretation?
What are the benefits of using a mobile phone for research?
Is action in the past perfect always a preceding action? In Practical English Usage (p99) gives the example: He
went out out before I had finished my sentence, and
continues: Note
that… a past perfect tense can refer to a time later than the action of the main verb. What is remarkable in this case?
And I want to tell you that we received certificates before completing our course and it sounds really awkward to me. May be to do with information packaging and end focus. End focus expects the new or important information to be at the last sentence.
In this case, the unusual new (new, or important) information in this case is not receiving certificates (which is a given) but the receiving of certificates before finishing the course. What did we get from DCP for
the course before completion?
Both are fine grammatically, and if anything before is the one where the past perfect is the more useful.
What
did you think of the desert course: a simple panna cotta. The desert course includes any food that resembles a desert. When I finished higher than average, my certificates were sent. Before I could start my courses all over again. But once I started, I started the graduation.
As the first sentence has set up the circumstances of the course, the perfect “had finished” gives us a period with an end in the past, and the before places the simple “we received certificates” within that period, just as after would place it subsequently.
What do you think is an acceptable grammatical note?
Both are fine grammatically, and if anything before is the one where the past perfect is the more useful.
What
did you think of the desert course: a simple panna cotta. The desert course includes any food that resembles a desert. When I finished higher than average, my certificates were sent. Before I could start my courses all over again. But once I started, I started the graduation.
As the first sentence has set up the circumstances of the course, the perfect “had finished” gives us a period with an end in the past, and the before places the simple “we received certificates” within that period, just as after would place it subsequently.
What do you think is an acceptable grammatical note?
