perfect or not

[azarakh...@yahoo.com]

I was talking to someone, and suddenly he left the room in anger.

Should I say:
a. I don't even remember what I said to that fellow who left the room in anger.
or.
b. I don't even remember what I had said to that fellow who left the toom in anger.

I would say that (b) implies something of a considerable time distance between my saying whatever it was I said and his leaving.

(a) leaves open the possibility that I said what I said to him after he left the room, say, in the hallway. But that is besides the point.

I would like to know what native-speakers think about (a) and (b). Which one would be used to convey the idea that the events formed a sequence.
What would the implications of using the perfect tense (had said) be?

Many Thanks.
Azz.

[Swifty]

On 25/05/2013 03:26, azarakh...@yahoo.com wrote:
> I don't even remember what I said to that fellow who left the room in anger.

I would say "I don't even remember what I said to that fellow before he

left the room in anger".

--
Steve Swift
http://www.swiftys.org.uk/

[Eric Walker]

On Fri, 24 May 2013 19:26:12 -0700, azarakhdadkhah wrote:

> I was talking to someone, and suddenly he left the room in anger.
>
> Should I say:
> a. I don't even remember what I said to that fellow who left the room in
> anger. or.
> b. I don't even remember what I had said to that fellow who left the

> [room] in anger.

Sentence (a) is in the simple past: it just relates the events as things
now over and done.

Sentence (b) is incorrect; it wants to be in the past perfect, which
represents the acts described as having already been completed by some
specified or implied time now in the past; but parts of the sentence are
still in the simple past. It would have to read:

c. I didn't even remember what I had said to that fellow who had left
the [room] in anger.

That form implies that the speaker is discussing the state of affairs at
some time after the affair of the miffed person leaving some room, but in
the past for him and the present listener. If that seems tangled, it
represents something like this:

Last Tuesday, Fred and Mary were asking me what had happened at Joe's
party the night before that had caused such a fuss. Well, this fellow
had gotten mad at something I said and had stalked out. I realized,
talking to Fred and Mary, that I didn't even remember what I had said
to that fellow who had left the room in anger.

To the immediate listener, all of this is in the past, but at the time of
the speaker's conversation with Fred and Mary, the events described were
already in their past.


--
Cordially,
Eric Walker

[Marius Hancu]

> b. I don't even remember what I had said to that fellow who left the room in anger.

My take:

I don't even remember what I had said to that fellow before he left
the room in anger.

which can be simplified to:

I don't even remember what I said to that fellow before he left the
room in anger.

as the time sequence is clear enough because of "before."

Marius Hancu

[azarakh...@yahoo.com]

Many thanks to Steve, Eric and Marius.

Interesting. I don't see how Marius' suggestion differs from that of Steve!
Steve was just swifter.

Take care
Azz