word choice - "I had no sooner returned than I turned on" vs. "I have no sooner returned than I turn on"
Context: As a teacher who loves writing, I am interested in posting messages on the twitter.
Which of the following options is correct? Please explain the reasoning.
- I am so interested in posting messages on the twitter that everyday I had no sooner returned home than I immediately turned on the computer to write something.
- I am so interested in posting messages on the twitter that everyday I have no sooner returned home than I immediately turn on the computer to write something.
Answer
The normal sequence of tenses would require the first sentence to be written as:
I was so interested in posting messages on Twitter that every day I had no sooner returned home than I immediately turned on the computer to write something.
The second sentence brings the events one stage forward in time, and uses the present perfect have . . . returned in place of the past perfect had . . . returned. What the present perfect does here is describe a present state resulting from an earlier event.
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