English Grammar Demystified - A Self Teaching Guide

3. I am writing business manuals for twenty years. (Tricky! Remember that
   am is a form of be.)


4. The Tomkins owned the pharmacy for ten years and are now starting to
   renovate it.


5. I watched baseball on TV year after year, but now I’m reserving seats at the
   stadium.

PAST PERFECT TENSE

On occasion, one past action occurs before another past action. For example:

My friend had visited us from time to time before he moved to Seattle.

Both verbs are in the past (visited,moved), but the visiting took place in the past
before the moving. The challenge is to always make clear which action occurred
fi rst. The helping verb had makes that clear. For example:

Jackie had eaten alone before I invited him to join us.

COMMON ERRORS

Remember that too much had is not a good thing!

After we had bought the furniture, we had found a better sale.

Unbelievably, I had walked on that foot for days before I had realized it was broken.

Only one verb should include the helping verb had. Which action came fi rst in each sen-

tence? That’s the verb that should be accompanied by had:

After we had bought the furniture, we found a better sale.

Unbelievably, I had walked on that foot for days before I realized it was broken.

CHAPTER 3 Verbs, Prepositions, and Pronouns^53