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Should I conjugate into the preterit "occcur" in the following sentence?

English Language & Usage Asked by Newgate on March 21, 2021

Here is the sentence in question :

It hadn’t occur to you that this person could potentially become a menace for you over the coming years ?

2 Answers

Past perfect tense... Had occurred. Use "had" with the past participle of the verb; here "occurred".

Answered by GEdgar on March 21, 2021

This is the past perfect tense of the verb to occur but with the addition of the the negator not (it had not occurred) so it needs to be the past participle of to occur because 'had occurred" with the past tense of the verb 'to be' is a compund verb.

It is in contrast to the structure did occur which combines the verb "occur" with the auxilliary verb "to do. Because "did occur" is not a compund verb but a main verb with an auilliary the auxilliary has to be in the past tense while the main verb does not.

In the past perfect tense the verb "to be" is not an auxilliary word but actually part of the main verb.

Answered by BoldBen on March 21, 2021

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