[Grammar] Using "as if" with past perfect tense

[binha10k12]

1. He talked as if he knew eveything.
2. She ran as if a ghost had been running after her.

In the second sentence, there was no ghost after her, so we use past perfect tense. But in the first sentence, he couldn't know everything, so I think we should use past perfect tense instead of past simple tense. But my teacher told me that we must use past simple tense in this sentence. I still don't understand why. Please explain it to me.

 

[GoesStation]

Number 1 is correct if you fix everything. The past perfect would be OK in certain contexts but it's unlikely; it would cast the knowing into a further past. For example, We were certain he knew nothing about it at the time of the crime, but he talked as if he had known everything.

Number 2 needs the subjunctive continuous, at least in AmE: She ran as if a ghost were running after her.

 

[Tdol]

In the second sentence, there was no ghost after her, so we use past perfect tense.

I don't follow the logic behind this idea.

 

[Matthew Wai]

2. She ran as if a ghost had run after her.

I think 'had run' refers to the time before she ran instead of the time when she ran, and it doesn't suggest an unreal situation.

I don't follow the logic behind this idea.

I think the OP's logic is that it refers to an unreal situation when it goes back one tense.

 

[TheParser]

I think we should use past perfect tense instead of past simple tense.

NOT A TEACHER

Hello, Binha:

I have found some information that may interest you.

Four world-respected grammarians say that these three sentences are all correct English:

1. She treated me as though I was a stranger.

2. She treated me as though I were a stranger.

3. She treated me as though I had been a stranger.


Quirk, et al., A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (1985 edition), page 1110.

 

[Matthew Wai]

I think 'She ran as if a ghost had been running after her' is also possible.

 

[GoesStation]

I think 'She ran as if a ghost had been running after her' is also possible.

It's not likely though. If a ghost had been running after her, we understand that it stopped. In that case, why was she still running?

 

[Matthew Wai]

Does the past perfect continuous refer to an action that must have stopped?

 

[GoesStation]

Does the past perfect continuous refer to an action that must have stopped?

Not necessarily. It could be nearly complete: She'd been working all day, but she knew that if she just finished one more step, the work would be complete. Or it could be ongoing: He'd been splitting rocks in the prison yard for three years. He knew he would still be splitting rocks for another ten years.

 

[Matthew Wai]

Was it ongoing in 'She ran to a church because a ghost had been running after her'?

 

[GoesStation]

Was it ongoing in 'She ran to a church because a ghost had been running after her'?

No. The ghost was running after her. She ran to a church. The ghost went away.

[Cross-posted with Piscean.]

 

[Skrej]

Or it's simply hovering outside waiting for her to come back out. :shock:

 

[Tdol]

I think the OP's logic is that it refers to an unreal situation when it goes back one tense.

Unreal presents and futures go back to the past. Unreal pasts go back to the past perfect.