[stylist] Past Simple and Perfect Usage

[Angela Fowler]

Whoa, this one's over my head. Obviously the past simple and past perfect
are forms of the past tense, but what is the difference between the two? 
Angela

-----Original Message-----
From: stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:stylist-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Neil Butters
Sent: Tuesday, June 08, 2010 10:06 AM
To: stylist at nfbnet.org
Subject: [stylist] Past Simple and Perfect Usage

Hello All,

I have  a question about using the past simple and past perfect. I know that
when a story is told in the past simple, flashbacks or anything else that
took place previously use the past perfect. But I have read many stories
told in the past simple that abandon that rule in flashback paragraphs.
Typically, the author switches from the perfect to simple in the same
paragraph even though the whole thing describes a past event. Here is an
example from The Last Great Clown Hunt, a story told in the past simple:

I had glimpsed the stilt dancers only once. Billy Boy and I were watching
them through a gap in the big top when the shaman caught us. He ran me off;
he allowed Billy Boy to stay. I still had a hard time picturing Billy Boy as
one of them. To me he'd always seemed like a clown wannabe.

So why is the past perfect used in the first sentence, "I had glimpsed," but
not in subsequenbt sentences? Why not "Billy Boy and I had watched...?" Or
"he had allowed...?"

Thanks for the help.

Neil


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