Neka prošla vremena su vrlo popularna među govornicima kojima engleski nije materinji jezik – vjerojatno su I wrote i I was writing i vaša omiljena vremena – dok I have written i I had written zvuče vrlo egzotično. Ali najjednostavnija rješenja nisu uvijek i najtočnija.
At the beginning things seem very simple: when talking about something that happened in the past we can simply say I wrote the report. However, there is more to it. Consider the following 4 sentences:
a) I have written the report. It’s on your desk. b) I wrote the report when the boss came. c) I was writing the report when my boss came. d) I had written the report when my boss came.
This time the situation is even worse than with present: here we have 4 different tenses for something that could be translated into Croatian as Napisao/la sam or Pisao/la sam izvještaj. You might ask yourself if there really is a difference. Let’s do it step by step.
Compare: a) I have written the report. It’s on your desk. b) I wrote the report last week.
How many of your English lessons have been spent on futile attempts to make you use I have done it? But when speaking, this form still rarely (if at all) crosses your lips. However, those of us who aspire to perfection should maybe give one more try to understanding the logic behind the choice of I have written over the simple I wrote. In the first example the focus is on the result of an activity which has happened at an indefinite past time. When is irrelevant here but what matters is that now the report is on your boss’s desk (and since bosses are by their very nature result-oriented, they do not care about when you did something as long as it is there when they need it.) However, if you want to draw their attention to your dedication or earn extra credit for being a good time manager you will stress when you did it by saying I wrote it last week.
And now let’s compare: b) I wrote the report when the boss came. c) I was writing the report when my boss came. d) I had written the report when my boss came.
Sentences b, c and d indeed make a difference in your boss’s eyes. In the example b one action followed the other: my boss came and then I remembered to do the report (not good). In c, the boss just came too early while I was still working on it (he interrupted me when I was in the middle of my activity and making a really good progress). In the sentence d the report had already been finished well before the boss came (and you might be having difficulties finding it now).
