Chap 13: Pg 249: Verbs Comparisons Adv Strategy

[mbolisetty]

The books says:

Wrong: I have never seen an aardvark, but last year my father did.
Right: I have never seen an aardvark, but last year my father SAW one.

Is the sentence below correct too ???
I have never seen an aardvark, but last year my father HAD

[esledge]

The books says:

Wrong: I have never seen an aardvark, but last year my father did.
Right: I have never seen an aardvark, but last year my father SAW one.

Is the sentence below correct too ???
I have never seen an aardvark, but last year my father HAD

"Did" doesn't work in the wrong example because when you ask "did what?" the only possible answer is "did seen," which doesn't make sense. There's no "see" for "did" to reference.

With your example, when you ask "my father had what?" you can look back at "have seen" for the answer: my father had seen. So that's OK.

However, "had seen" is past perfect tense, which is only justified if my father did two things, both at different times in the past OR if my father did something not simply in the past, but in the past prior to some other point/benchmark.

These would be OK:
(1) I have never seen an aardvark, but last year my father had seen 11 before aardvark mating season even started.

(2) I have never seen an aardvark, but before we applied the aardvark repellant my father had.