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.
an exception in the tense usage of "over/during/in"
Moderator: Alan
-
- Member
- Posts: 21
- Joined: Fri Jan 27, 2017 5:30 am
- Status: Learner of English
- Alan
- Teacher/Moderator
- Posts: 15204
- Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2003 7:56 pm
- Status: Teacher of English
- Location: Japan
Re: an exception in the tense usage of "over/during/in"
Since the supposed grammar rule that you cite has no basis in fact, I cannot comment.