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Can past perfect tense be used without a second tense?

English Language & Usage Asked by Egemberdiev Raimbek on January 6, 2021

I found this sentence in the book “Game of Thrones”:

Catelyn had never liked this godswood.

It seems that the author used past perfect tense here, but without a second tense. Is it possible? Or is this not past perfect?

One Answer

The essence of Past Perfect concerns three points of time: Present(P), a point of time in the Past(PP) and a point of time before PP (PPP).

Past perfect tense indicates when an event that happened in PPP affects something in PP. The classic example is :

When I reached the station (PP), the train had already left (PPP).

Here the event in PPP, affects the status at PP (that the train was not available).

To your sentence:

Catelyn had never liked this godswood.

This hints indirectly to the period when Catelyn came to Winterfell after her marriage with Ned Stark, her fiance having been killed. She did not like it then (PPP), and she never came to like it at the point of the story narration (PP). Liked is the 3rd form of the verb, which is used here. This is a sentence using the Past Perfect tense.

Correct answer by Vaibhav Garg on January 6, 2021

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