tenses/were worried/had been worried

English grammar questions, answered by Alan

Moderator: Alan

Locked
azz
Rising Star
Rising Star
Posts: 296
Joined: Fri Feb 06, 2004 12:50 pm

tenses/were worried/had been worried

Post by azz »

a. I was late. I thought that when I got home, my parents would have been worried. But they hadn't. They had figured out I'd be late and were not worried.

b. I was late. I thought that when I got home, my parents would be worried. But they weren't. They had figured out I'd be late and were not worried.


Which is grammatically correct?

If they had been worrying, their worry would be over when I got home. So they wouldn't be worried when I got home. They'd have been worrying until that point in time. So I think (a) is correct. But I wonder if people would not use (b).

Maybe there is another solution to the problem.

Context:

I am late. I think when I get home, my parents will say: "We have been worried about you." That was not the case, When I got home, I realized that they hadn't been worrying at all.


Many thanks.
User avatar
Alan
Teacher/Moderator
Teacher/Moderator
Posts: 15204
Joined: Mon Dec 29, 2003 7:56 pm
Status: Teacher of English
Location: Japan

Re: tenses/were worried/had been worried

Post by Alan »

All of the sentences, in and of themselves, are grammatically correct.

However, the sequence of sentences in (a) is not felicitous, since it seems to be attempting the substitution of a word that is naturally interpreted as adjectival ('worried' in sentence 2) for one that is purely verbal (the implicit 'worried' in sentence 3).

Cf. if you had said, e.g.

I was late. I thought that when I got home, my parents would have been worried by my lateness.

which would resolve the incompatability.
Locked