an exception in the tense usage of "over/during/in"

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grammarguy
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an exception in the tense usage of "over/during/in"

Post by grammarguy »

My non-native English speaking friends and I have learned that you have to use either the present perfect or the present perfect continuous when you talk about "over/during/in". The reason is that these prepositions refer to an event that happened in the past and continues until now.

My friends' neighbor (not sure if he is a native English speaker) said that there is an exception in this rule, which depends on the context. He gave us the following example.

(ex) John, who is a hockey player, had scored a lot of goals "over/during/in" the last five seasons. However, at the end of the current season, he got fewer than twenty goals due to injury.

We really don't know if the gentleman is a native English speaker. Is it OK to use the past perfect in the first sentence of the given example? Thank very much for your time and help.
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Alan
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Re: an exception in the tense usage of "over/during/in"

Post by Alan »

Since the supposed grammar rule that you cite has no basis in fact, I cannot comment.
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