Learn English – passing vs having passed

tenseverbs

After ______ MA Economics he joined the London School of Economics.

I am confused about using "passing" or "having passed"?

*Edit – I did some research and from what I gathered, the answer is "passing" because using "having passed" with "after" will bring a sense of redundancy. The "having passed" form of the verb has the "after" inherent in it.

Best Answer

In your test the correct answer is, probably, passing. That's what Murphy's English Grammar says:

When one action happens before another action, we use having (done) for the first action:

Having finished her work, she went home.

You can also say after -ing:

After finishing her work, she went home.

So, when there is the word after, it is more "right" to use [verb]-ing. But note that after having (done) occurs in practical usage. These sentences I've found on Google News:

After having done this, he returned to the scene

A bus driver almost choked to death after having found a coil in his two chicken breasts

Khan thought he had the fight with Mayweather wrapped up after having won a poll on the website.

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