just
Does this sentetence below sound right to you?
He just got a cab when it started to pour.
Or with adverb 'just' we must use the past perfect instead of past simple, which means the sntence should be:
He had just got a cab when it started to pour.
The first sentence sounds Okey to me but I'm not a native speaker, so could someone confirm it for me?
If you said it you'd be understood, but it sounds more natural to say:
"He had just got a cab when it started to pour."
Ben.
If you were American, you would have to say "He had just gotten a cab when it started to pour" -- we retain that form of "got", which has fallen into disuse in the UK and elsewhere.
Hello, Uriel,
Do Americans say cab or taxi more often? At first I thought it is taxi- Martin Scorsese's 1976 movie was after all TAXI Driver, not Cab Driver!
They're not too commonly used here in California but I only call them "taxis" if I ever have to talk about one. I don't think I use the word "cab" but I understand it.
hi
my friend who has got his first job has become very cool these days.
i want to write the sentence that he should get serious because its high time too think about his career. how effectively i can write this sentence?
CT:
You can say:
He'd just got a cab when it started to pour.
and
He just got a cab when it started to pour.
In the latter example, "had" has been dropped through ellipsis, which is a very common tendency in English (dropping words without loss of meaning).
"He just got out of the cab when it started to pour "
sounds more refreshing.
Am I wrong ?
Cheers. Claude.
Thanks very much for introducing me to the concept of ellipsis, JJM; I've never heard of it before.
<<"He just got out of the cab when it started to pour "
sounds more refreshing. >>
Claude,
Do you mean to say that he got out of the cab, coz in the very first sentence, it does not mention whether the person got in the cab or out of the cab.
<<He just got a cab when it started to pour. >>
This can always mean that he got in to the cab. Am I correct?
Cheers :)