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You Asked Me This Question / Re: A case of a past perfect sentence that evokes lost opportunity
« on: July 03, 2018, 04:01:30 PM »
Joe, thank you again for your quick and exhaustive reply.
I have one more question about sequence of tenses: what tense would be more appropriate in such a compound sentence: “When I was a kid my parents had been raising the sheep”
The past perfect continuous seems to be suitable in this case, but I doubt it because some sources claim that the past perfect continuous means a continuing action or process in the past finished just before an other one. Whereas in my case the action (raising the sheep) started in the past (probably even before my birth) and was still happening at the moment of my being a kid. So that perhaps it is better to use the past continuous ‘my parents were raising the sheep’ or even the past simple is enough ‘my parents raised the sheep’?
I have one more question about sequence of tenses: what tense would be more appropriate in such a compound sentence: “When I was a kid my parents had been raising the sheep”
The past perfect continuous seems to be suitable in this case, but I doubt it because some sources claim that the past perfect continuous means a continuing action or process in the past finished just before an other one. Whereas in my case the action (raising the sheep) started in the past (probably even before my birth) and was still happening at the moment of my being a kid. So that perhaps it is better to use the past continuous ‘my parents were raising the sheep’ or even the past simple is enough ‘my parents raised the sheep’?