Are the following three sentences all correct? If yes, what are the differences among them?
1. The pillars that hold up the roof broke in the earthquake, leading to the collapse of the house.
2. The pillars that held up the roof broke in the earthquake, leading to the collapse of the house.
3. The pillars that had held up the roof broke in the earthquake, leading to the collapse of the house.
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Answers · 6
1
I would go for the second
0
I like #2, also.
The 3rd one is also correct, but it sounds very formal and a little bit awkward simply because "had" and "held" are so similar in their sounds.
When using past tense in English, you can use simple past for nearly anything that happened in the past; whereas, perfect and imperfect both have more specific uses. That's why both #2 and 3 are grammatically fine, but different.
#1 is not correct because it has the present tense "hold." Since the pillars fell down, they do not currently hold the roof up, so it is incorrect.
0
I'd go for the 3rd one, it's what we call: Past before past.
When you have 2 actions that happened in the past but not at the same time; put the first one in Past perfect and the second verb of the action at Simple past.
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