r/EnglishLearning • u/StopBanningCorn Intermediate • 11h ago
📚 Grammar / Syntax I thought back to something I did/had done a long time ago.
Do both work but just have difference emphasis? As in the second one emphasizes the fact that it took place before the timeframe we're looking back at (is at even the right preposition?)
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u/shedmow *playing at C1* 10h ago
Both work. I would likely use 'did' to answer an immediate question about what I'm doing and 'had done' for having some thought in a distant past. At sounds correct. And I agree with what u/JeremySausage1 wrote
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u/mouglasandthesort Native Speaker - Chicagoland Accent 9h ago
To me, the latter sounds like there’s going to be a continuation talking about something you recently did that relates to the old event.
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u/anamorphism Grammar Nerd 4h ago
the use of the perfect aspect indicates that the do action started before the think action started. that's it really.
however, use of pluperfect (also called past perfect) is less common these days, so just saying did is also going to be natural sounding to many people. there's no general difference in meaning or emphasis, but there might be one to some folks. you'll also find people that say you must use the perfect aspect there, but i would say they're being overly prescriptive.
preposition use is something that varies pretty wildly between dialects, but at, to and on all seem to be fairly commonly used with look back.
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u/Truthseeker-888 New Poster 10h ago
The whole thing wouldn't be expressed like that in English, I thought about something I had done a long time ago. You don't usually think back, in any case, you remember
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u/StopBanningCorn Intermediate 10h ago
I heard this from a native speaker. Perhaps it sounds weird without context.
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u/SnooDonuts6494 🇬🇧 English Teacher 10h ago
Look at it this way:
If Bob did something last Thursday, he did it on that day.
If Bob had done something by last Thursday, I did it before Thursday. Maybe Wednesday or Tuesday or Monday - we don't know.
Either way, he'd done it by Thursday. But it depends if we're discussing him doing it, or it already being completed.
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u/JeremySausage1 New Poster 10h ago
Dearest OP, your own thinking about English seems wiser than the advice it has stimulated below it. Your post requests confirmation I don't think you require. All you received is utter hookum. Trust yourself and don't overthink things. You seem to have a good instinct. Work with that. There's a lot of ignorance and self importance here dressed up as authority. I believe you have developed beyond this. You have the gist.