Take for example:
I met Raschel three years ago. He
represented a small company of which
he was also the proprietor. He came to
show the presentation of his product
plan. Many companies, big and small,
sent their representatives to grab
this opportunity. The board held a
meeting and decided to call upon
companies specializing in these
products.
I have few queries:
-
Is it appropriate to start the second line with "He came" or it should be "He had come"?
-
The last line, when checked with www.paperrater.com, gets underline under "held a meeting". What is the proper way to replace these words?
Best Answer
He had come would be correct, as that is past perfect—the timeframe of the past is the "I met Raschel", but by that time, Raschel had already come, so you want to go into the past even further, which is the past perfect tense, also known as the pluperfect tense.
As for held a meeting, paperrater.com marks it as a cliche. A cliche is a phrase that is overused a lot, but personally, I don't agree with it—the construction is perfectly fine to use. If, however, you really want to replace it, you could go with the shorter phrase "The board met and decided...".