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I have a question about tense in a sentence that includes the conjunction 'since'. Mostly, 'since' is used with present perfect and past tense as in the sentence(a) below.

(a) Mr.Koo wants to emphasize how much time has passed since Koreans created white porcelains.

How can I change the tense of the sentence to the past tense? Is the following correct?

(b) Mr. Koo wanted to emphasize how much time had passed since Koreans created white porcelains.

With my understanding, (b) seems wrong because the part that come after 'since' doesn't follow the tense agreement rule.

Edwin Ashworth
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tammy
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  • You don't quote the 'tense agreement rule' you mention. You might expect (b') 'Mr. Koo wanted to emphasize how much time had passed since Koreans had created white porcelains.' It's more logical, but the past perfect is often sacrificed and the past simple used instead where confusion is unlikely (as here). '...had passed' needs to be in the past perfect, but 'created' is, I'd say, more idiomatic than 'had created' here. It doesn't sound as clunky. – Edwin Ashworth May 31 '18 at 09:08
  • Thank you for your clear explanation. As you mentioned I thought past perfect should be used after 'since' in the sentence (b). However, I feel comfortable with the past tense after 'since' now that you said it's rather idiomatic to use simple past tense. Thanks again. – tammy Jun 01 '18 at 02:11

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