English Experts

[juliamontenegro]

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't"

How come past perfect was used in the first part of the sentence as it is a fact however it doesn't show another sentence in the past to be preceded?

Is it ok or should it be simple past/present perfect and then a wish clause?

Thanks in advance,

Julia

[Flavia.lm]

Olá Júlia

Não digo que seja impossível (é bem provável que exista sim), mas, nessa frase em questão, eu concordo com vc... parece estar errado mesmo.

Eu teria escrito> Tell us something you did but you wish you hadn't

aguardemos outros comentários...

[Ricarte]

É Julia. Eu também concordo com vocês.
No entanto, eu reescreveria algo como "Tell us something you have done but you wish you hadn't"
Caso se use 'did', eu acho que deveria ser "Tell us something you did but you wish you didn't"

Mas eu me baseio em minhas próprias impressões. Como disse a Flávia, veremos outros comentários...

Gustavo

[heartbeatssound]

Concordo plenamente com as observações do Ricarte.
"Tell us something you had done but you wish you hadn't" - eu usaria "have done".

Deem uma olhada nisso:

The "had done" form (or past perfect) is one of the least used tenses in English. We only really use it in the following situations.
* When it's important to say which event happened first in the past
* In reported speech
* To show regret about the past
* In conditional (if) sentences
(fonte: http://www.english-at-home.com/grammar/ ... n-english/)

E acho válido postar também a diferença entre "have done" e "did":

"Have done" is used when you say you've done something before at a unspecified time, as in "I have done that before", "I have seen that movie before".
"Did" is used when talking about a specific point in the past "I did that yesterday" "I did that when I went to Canada".
You would never use "I have done that a week ago" or "I did that before". It would always be: "I did that a week ago" and "I've done that before".
(fonte: http://www.englishforums.com/English/Di ... n/post.htm)

Espero ter ajudado!

[Henry Cunha]

Complementando:

Tell us (of) something you've done that you wish you hadn't.

Algumas possibilidades de coordenação de tempos verbais:

I said something (that) I wish I hadn't.
I've said something (that) I wish I hadn't.

I had said something that I would subsequently regret (having said).

Regards