Teach me English (PastPerfect )?

Question

I'm a Japanese speaker.

PastPerfect and Past tense are still confusing to me.
I know Past Perfect shows 2events in the past.

My text books says
I had lived in Tokyo for 3 years. isnt correct.
I lived in Tokyo for 2yers. is correct.
He had worked for 30years untill he retired. is correct.

How about this?
She had been taking a bath when the phene suddenly rang.
I think it's not correct. The verb should be WAS.
'cause In this term, there is not interval of the time. It's just the
point of the time(when the phone rang)

She had been taking a bath until the phone suddenly rang.
I think it's correct. Because [untill the pone rang ] implies the interval of the time in the past. That's whey Past Perfect is appropriate for this term.

What do you think???

I know this is really trivial for the communication in English, but I'm reqired such a knowlege in the test.

Thank you in advance!

sorry for typo

I lived in Tokyo for 3 years. not 2years

Answer 1

Past tense is a verb tense expressing action, activity, state or being in the past.

The two distinct types of past tense are:

1.Present perfect
2.Preterite (or simple past)

-The past perfect that your referring to is under the first distinct type and for you to understand it clearly, pls. check this website..
You need to understand the types of verbs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_tense
http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/verbtenseintro.html

Answer 2

"She had been taking a bath UNTIL the phone suddenly rang" is an odd construction. A native speaker would not use "until" in this manner. (It is a little different from the sentence about the man working until he retired - he performed both verbal actions.) It is common for people to use "was" in this sentence also, but you would not substitute the word until for when.

The use of "had" is common when there is a second action that happens after the first one. In this case, she was taking a bath and then the phone rang. Two separate actions, one clearly after the other, so had is correct. Here are some other examples:

I had driven my car for only two minutes before it overheated.
I had been dancing the tango when I twisted my ankle.
I had been worrying a lot before I heard that you were safe.
I had baked five cakes before the oven broke.
I had been waiting for 30 minutes when the bus finally came.
I had already taken the kids to school when you called.
I had thought about learning another language, but three is enough.
I had used up all the milk, so I had to go buy some more.

Answer 3

I guess that is partly a matter of style.
"She had been taking a bath, when the phone suddenly rang."---This looks quite natural, right?

Everytime the past perfect is used, a point in the past is automatically set (usually from the context or with adverbial phrase/clause). So, the sentence in question here automatically have the reader think of a certain point in the past despite it is not described clearly. The reader will think of a moment until when 'she' had been taking a bath first, only according to the word order of the sentence. Just after that, he/she will know the next fact that the phone suddenly rang.

So, even without a comma there, the meaning of the sentence should be the same as that with a comma there.

Answer 4

She was taking a bath when the telephone suddenly rang.
This is an interrupted action of some duration in the past, typically expressed by Past Progressive (Continuous) tense (for interrupted action) and Past Simple (for interrupting action).

She had been taking a bath until the phone suddenly rang.
This is a sequence of two actions in the past, typically the chronologically first action is expressed by Past Perfect and the other one by Past Simple. If it is understandable which action came first only Past Simple (and sometimes Past Progressive) can be used (She was taking a bath. The phone suddenly rang.) but the use of 'until' definitely requires Past Perfect.

I'd say you are right :)

Answer 5

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Answer 6

come to my house i will teach you