An quick grammar question

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1

<p>“The editor had intended to invite both you and me to write for his newspaper; however, because of space constraints, only one of us can submit an article.”</p>

<p>What is the difference if “the editor intended to invite…” is used or “has invited?” Would the latter mean that the editor invited in the past and continues to invite to the present?</p>

<p>Thanks</p>

<p>“an quick grammar question” lol.</p>

2

<p>I’m having trouble understanding your question. Is this an SAT sentence correction?</p>

<p>“had intended to invite…” is past perfect tense and means the editor planned to invite both, BUT… (something happened to prevent him from doing so)</p>

<p>“Has invited” means he did it- he invited both you and me…</p>

3

<p>Yes, it’s a sentence correction question. The first sentence is considered “correct” by Princeton Review.</p>

4

<p>Uh no…has intended means he still intends or stopped at the time of speaking, it does not mean that he did invite both.</p>

<p>Had intended means that he intended to invite both, but something else in the past prevented him from doing so. I cannot see the other past tense verb, can is present. I would say that the correct tense would be just simple past “the editor intended to write”.</p>

5

<p>Sorry, I was meant to put “has intended” instead of “has invited” in the original question. I wanted to know the difference between using
“the editor HAS INTENDED to invite…”
“the editor HAD INTENDED to invite…”
“the editor INTENDED to invite…”</p>

<p>actually just difference between using “had intended” and “intended”</p>

6

<p>Had intended means he intended in the past, before another past event.
Intended means he intended in the past.
This simple past is not suitable for some sentences, eg. He had walked down the street and then hailed a cab. You cannot say he walked down the street then hailed a cab.</p>

7

<p>So is it right in thinking that the past perfect is used because “space constraints” prevented the editor from inviting? Otherwise it seems weird that a past perfect is used with “can”, a present tense verb, without indicating the past action that the past perfect action happens before.</p>

8

<p>No, you cannot use past perfect, there is no past event that is before the intending. Thus, simple past is best.</p>

9

<p>Thanks gertrudetrumpet, I originally thought that the past perfect should not have been there. PR thinks that “The editor had intended to invite both you and me to write for his newspaper; however, because of space constraints, only one of us can submit an article” is correct.</p>

10

<p>I have a quick grammar question too :/</p>

<p>Do we say “We put off deciding whether we should go to the park” or “We put off deciding on whether…”, or are both acceptable?</p>