Present Perfect/ Past Perfect

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Present Perfect/ Past Perfect
Message from dante2402 posted on 04-01-2014 at 18:29:09 (D | E | F)
Hello!

Please help me!
Why do we use in the following sentence: "Last week, I ran into an ex-girlfriend of mine. We hadn't seen each other for years, and both of us had changed a great deal." the Past Perfect?

Can I say "Last week, I ran into an ex-girlfriend of mine. We have not seen each other for years, and both of us had changed a great deal."?
Thank you!

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Edited by lucile83 on 04-01-2014 20:26

Re: Present Perfect/ Past Perfect from carlabice47, posted on 04-01-2014 at 19:09:50 (D | E)
Hello,

The moment you met her marks a point in time, what happened before is to be expressed with a past perfect.
"We haven't seen each other for years" means that you haven't seen her yet and are still to see her again.
But in your sentence when you met her you also saw her and the act of not seeing her preceded the moment you two met.
Hoping I've been sufficiently clear .
carlabice47

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Edited by lucile83 on 04-01-2014 20:29

Re: Present Perfect/ Past Perfect from lemagemasque, posted on 04-01-2014 at 19:14:00 (D | E)
Hello!

You cannot, you must use the past perfect since you talk about the past.
If you'd still say "We have not seen each other for years", then you should use the present for the whole sentence!

See you!

Re: Present Perfect/ Past Perfect from dante2402, posted on 04-01-2014 at 19:19:20 (D | E)
Thank you all very much!

Re: Present Perfect/ Past Perfect from lemagemasque, posted on 04-01-2014 at 19:26:11 (D | E)
You're welcome!

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