Sentence Correction In action problem (page53)

by **guest** Mon Jun 16, 2008 11:50 pm

Can you say "She got up and was brushing her teeth when the phone rang" instead of "She had already gotten up and was brushing her teeth when the phone rang"

When the grammatical subject is the same, why do you need to use the past perfect tense?

Thanks!

by **gmat_jul** Wed Jun 18, 2008 1:50 pm

I have same question. Thanks

by **rfernandez** Fri Jun 27, 2008 3:29 am

The critical issue is not the subject of the verbs, but rather WHEN the actions take place.

"She got up and was brushing her teeth when the phone rang."
In this sentence, the verbs "got" "was brushing" and "rang" are all in the same tense, suggesting that all of the actions occurred at the same time.

It's unlikely that someone would get up and brush her teeth at the same time. Instead, it's more reasonable to place the action of getting up BEFORE the action of brushing her teeth. To illustrate this sequence of actions, both in the past, we need the past perfect tense.

The event that happened further in the past (getting up) requires the past perfect. The events that happened more recently in the past (brushing her teeth and the phone ringing) require the simple past.

"She had gotten up and was brushing her teeth when the phone rang."

Here, it's clearly communicated through the verb tenses that getting up was followed by brushing her teeth and the phone ringing.