Now this may seem like a silly question but I had this doubt for a long time .

There are two set of rules that I dont seem to distinguish between .

1. We use Perfect Tenses only when necessary . Usually we use Past Perfect Tense to indicate the sequence of occurrence of an event. When we use Before and After then the sequence in which these events occur is evident and we dont need Past Perfect .

Ex : Lisa bolted the door BEFORE she moved out of the house.

Now we have two action BOLTED and MOVED OUT and its clear that BOLTED happened before MOVED OUT .

So this is what makes use of Past Perfect unnecessary .


2. In this particular example the use of Perfect Tense is required even though we can see that the sequence of the actions are very clear .

My question is which rule is correct and why ? If both are correct then when should a particular rule be used .

I would love to hear from any experts on this issue .

Thanks.

Can you tell me where you found the rules below? The rules for the perfect verb tenses are given on page 8 of Sentence Correction I. Also, please find some example problems that illustrate your question from the Veritas texts (SCI or SCII) and we will be happy to help.

Thanks

-Veritas Homework Help

[quote="VP_Help"]Can you tell me where you found the rules below? The rules for the perfect verb tenses are given on page 8 of Sentence Correction I. Also, please find some example problems that illustrate your question from the Veritas texts (SCI or SCII) and we will be happy to help.

Thanks

-Veritas Homework Help[/quote]


Hello ,

Thank you very much for responding .

I found this rule in MGMAT SC book 4 th edition chapter 7 ,page 110 .

Another example of similar issue can be found in Q 68 SC1 Veritas Prep book , page 95 . Here the non-underlined portion has the past perfect tense . But the underlined portion of the sentence uses BEFORE he SHOT and KILLED .

Now in this sentence SHOT and KILLED are the two actions that happened at the same time , where as PERFORMED is an action that took place much earlier than SHOT and KILLED did .

My question is BEFORE clearly shows the sequence here that SHOT AND KILLED both happened after another even in past (PERFORMED) .

So is the use of Past Perfect necessary . OR have I misunderstood the rule .

Please help me as this is an issue I have seen in lot of questions . Different companies seem to prefer different rule . MGMAT strictly follows the BEFORE and AFTER rule .

Where as other companies like Veritas follow the rule that if we have two past event occurring at different time in past we should use Past Perfect to indicate which event took place earlier , irrespective of weather the sentence has sequence indicators such as BEFORE and AFTER .

Please do let em know , if I am making a mistake some where .

Thanks a lot .