past perfect subtlety

by **dps** Tue Oct 07, 2008 10:33 pm

I'm confused with this sentence correction question:

Hunters and warriors, bison were hunted by the native navajo, and they used the hides for shelters and meat for food.

a.bison were hunted by the native navajo, and they used the hides for shelters and meat for food
B. the native Navajo hunted bison, using the hides for shelters and meat for food
d. the native Navajo had hunted bison, and they used the hides for shelters and meat for food

A is obviously wrong because Navajo were hunters. But choice B and D are very close in their verb tense. I thought d is correct because "hunting" will happen before "using".
But correct answer is b

So I'm really confused about when to use past perfect

by **Guest** Wed Oct 08, 2008 11:33 am

Hey

As per the question, Events:
1) "hunting" and
2) "Use" of weapons

have happened simultaneously. Thus, usage of past perfect seems incorrect.

Thanks

by **dps** Wed Oct 08, 2008 2:14 pm

I think sentence means, they first hunted bison(some kind of mammal) and then used hides(skin) for shelters and meat for food.

hides and meat from bison.. isn't it?

by **StaceyKoprince** Thu Nov 06, 2008 6:29 pm

Past perfect needs to be for one distinct event that takes place before another distinct event. If you were talking about one particular bison hunt, then you might use past perfect to indicate that they were hunted before they were skinned etc.

But that's not what's going on here - we're talking about a cycle of activities that happened over and over. It's not just one distinct thing: I did this one thing, and then at a later point in time I did this one other thing.

by **dps** Sat Nov 08, 2008 10:54 am

Thanks Stacey. That makes it clear

by **JonathanSchneider** Wed Nov 19, 2008 8:52 pm

Bear in mind also that the past perfect is often a wrong answer choice. You need to know when to switch to it, but don't switch to it just because you see it as an option.

by **AaBb** Mon Jan 05, 2009 7:21 am

Also "and" is creating a sentance fragment. Both Hunting and "eating" etc are closely related events and should be expressed in one sentence with proper link in between.

by **JonathanSchneider** Thu Jan 15, 2009 12:44 am

The word "and" doesn't technically create a fragment - at least not grammatically - but you're right that there is a logical misstep in using it here, in that the two actions are really part of one action that was repeated many times (breaking it into two clauses makes it sounds like two distinct things that happened only once).