past-perfectpast-tenseverb-forms
What is the difference in meaning between these three sentences?
- Aren't they the ones who had come over for lunch?
- Aren't they the ones who came over for lunch?
- Aren't they the ones who used to come over for lunch?
Last one sounds like a habitual and reoccurring action but what do the first and second one mean?
This is a tricky question. The native ear will immediately recognize that "had been remained" is not correct. The had should be followed by a past participle. Remained and been are both past participles; you can use one or the other, but not both.
So, either of these could be used to start the sentence:
This issue gets tricky, however, when you switch to the passive voice. In that case, you can use he had been followed by a past participle, as in:
That's a valid formation, and it's listed as the past perfect passive verb form in this table1:
So, the question becomes, why can the verb elected be used in this way, but not the verb remained?
The key is that the sentence with elected is using the passive construction, but the sentence with remained has an active construction. As Dave Sperling says on his ESL website:
Because subjects of passive verbs receive the action, verbs that cannot have objects (intransitive verbs) do not have passive forms.
If you look up the words in a dictionary, you'll see that elect is transitive, and remain is intransitive, which is why had been remained sounds so awkward to the native ear, while had been elected sounds just fine – although many native speakers might have a hard time explaining why.
Now, you can explain it for them: "It's because remained is an intransitive verb, so it cannot be used in the passive voice."
I'm going to change the verb in the sentence:
I didn't eat.
I haven't eaten.
Both mean the person did not consume a meal during some timeframe. As others have said, the tenses are different.
Did you eat yesterday?
No, I didn't eat yesterday.
(In this case, the simple past maps to yesterday)When was the last time you ate?
I haven't eaten since last Friday.
(In this case, the present perfect refers to a time period starting last Friday and continues up to now.)
Similarly:
Did you go to the see the new movie last Friday?
No, I didn't go on Friday, I went on Saturday.Have you gone to see the new movie yet?
No, I haven't gone yet. I'm planning to go this weekend.
When using the first person, I think we usually use go instead of come in conversations like these. However, we might say:
Did he come to the family reunion last week?
No, he didn't come. He had to work that day.Has he come to any of the family reunions lately?
No, he hasn't come to a reunion since 2007.
Best Answer
Example for Had come : Imagine a situation in which 2 things have happened and we're talking about them :
1 = I did my homework ( at 9 PM)
2 = I watched TV ( at 10 PM)
5 Hours later i want to report these things to my Mother :
Me :Mom, I watched TV at 10 !
Mother : what about your homework ?
Me : I had done my homework before i watched TV.
Example : I used to smoke ( Means : In the past , smoking was a habit of mine and it no longer is)
The Main Source of the answer is Cambridge Advanced Grammar in Use(Third edition)
Good luck.