Brad,
I think all serious linguists would disagree with you. In phrases like
"was told", "had told", "have told", "is told", "told" is not carrying
tense. The finite is in the "be" or "have" auxiliary. Passive and
perfect call for the past participle, which is identical to past tense
with regular verbs but often has its own form for irregular verbs
(broken, bought, and so on.)
The same is true when these function as adjectives. "The edited text".
"The broken watch". "The reported crime."
"The text was edited in house." "By dawn, several people had reported
the crime." The first is past passive. The second is past perfect. In
present tense, only the auxiliary changes. "Texts are edited in house."
"Several people have reported the crime."
Craig >
Craig Hancock <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Brad,
>
> I am absolutely baffled why you believe "It was like the revival of an
> old melodrama that I had seen long ago with childish awe" is not
> correct.
>
> Tell me how you feel about, "It was like the revival of an old melodrama
> that I saw long ago with childish awe", "saw" being the past tense of
> "to see". He saw it long ago.
>
> The other point I would like to make is that people don't put "had" in
> front of past tense verbs.
>
> They put 'had' in front of words that are, in context, past tense verbs,
> as in this item from today's newspaper, describing an accident scene:
> "He said his son (had) told him that he was going to the race with his
> cousin".
>
> "Had" is followed by a past participle, which is identical with the past
> tense form for all regular verbs. That's true, as with "told" above,
> which is why I say they put 'had' in front of past tense verbs. In the
> quote, "told" is a past tense verb.
>
> "He walked through fields he (had) walked as a child" is perfectly well
> formed ... without the 'had'.
>
> If you are correcting verb phrases like that, then you are deeply
> mistaken.
>
> I think writing teachers, like doctors, should "first do no harm." Agreed.
>
>
>
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