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ESL forum >
Grammar and Linguistics > Tell us something you had done but you wish you hadn īt
Tell us something you had done but you wish you hadn īt
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juliamontenegro
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Tell us something you had done but you wish you hadn īt
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Hey everybody!
I came across this sentence the other day and found it soooooooo weird!
In: "Tell us something you had done but you wish you hadn īt"
Is it correct?
Thanks in advance,
Julia  |
14 Jul 2010
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juliamontenegro
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But the intention is to practice wish about the past (past perfect) |
14 Jul 2010
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Mariethe House
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Tell us something you have done but you wish you had not done( you hadn īt done)
"You have done" in your life experience ,up to now which is present, so you need to use the present perfect
You wish you had not done ....this action belongs to the past , not to the present anymore.ANd it īs special use after I wish
Not very theoretical but I hope it helps
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14 Jul 2010
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Izadeabreu
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I guess the example below may help;
When he arrived home, I had already prepared dinner. I wish I hadnīt prepared it. |
14 Jul 2010
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serene
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I agree with Mariethe.
Tell us something you have done but you wish you hadn īt.
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14 Jul 2010
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juliamontenegro
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Izadeabreu, in my opinion, in this case you are specifying a past action and another one before it. So you have a reason to use the past perfect and a simple past. When you simply ask something without giving a reference (another action in the past) , you ask using the present perfect, not the past perfect... |
14 Jul 2010
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libertybelle
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I think that is correct!
There is nothing wrong with that sentence.
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14 Jul 2010
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james_s
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It īs wrong, you have still done that action now so should be using present perfect. The time period being referred to is your life and therefore unfinished. Because the action is finished the second part of the sentence needs to be in the past, "you hadn īt".
present perfect is generally used to indicate that one action occured before another, even though this is sometimes obvious and is therefore generally combined with past simple in a sentence.
"I had arrived at the bank when it started to rain", "I arrived at the bank when it started to rain".
More commonly past perfect is used for time words such as never before, already & just.
Cheers
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14 Jul 2010
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juliamontenegro
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For me, the only possibility of past participle in the first part of the sentence would be:
Tell me something you had done before you took that test that you wish you hadnīt.
Any other oppinions? |
14 Jul 2010
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johanne23232
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I see two possibilities:
....something you īve done and wish you hadn īt.
or
.......something you did and wish you hadn īt.
I don īt see any justification for using the past perfect for the first verb ( " something you had done and wish you hadn īt " ) in this case, as the past perfect is used to īthrow � some action back to a time before some other action in the past simple (as Julia Montenegro just wrote).
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14 Jul 2010
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debk2000
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Do you think it is just a matter of what you want to emphasize?
For example, "have done" emphasizes that you are referring to your whole life.
To me, "had done" emphasizes the past.
Just a thought..... |
14 Jul 2010
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