# EN: I had been expecting / I was expecting - tense



## ruffiniere

Context: I_ have been expecting him _to give me some money, for he has been earning a lot recently.
I _was expecting him_ to give me some money, for he has been earning a lot recently.
I _had been expecting _him to give me some money, for he has been earning a lot recently.
My questions: I have some doubt about the use of the past perfect in the third sentense. Is it possible?
 What about this context: "It has been a long time since I met him.I _had been expecting _him to give me some money, for he has been earning a lot recently?"
Thank you for your help.


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## cropje_jnr

Yes, although the most logical tense choice in the second clause would be the past perfect as well. That said, the sentences as you have written it is quite possible if the person being referred to continues to earn a lot of money even as the sentence is being delivered.


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## ruffiniere

Thank you cropje jnr. What I don't quite understand in the 3rd clause is how the action with the  past perfect (had been expecting) relates to the action with the present perfect (he has been earning a lot recently). The present perfect (has been expecting) seemed better to me for there is  no reference to  a past moment such as (he was earning a lot). Thank you "clarify" this .


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## Maître Capello

_I have been expecting it_ → Je m'y attends depuis un certain temps. (Je m'y attends donc toujours en ce moment.)
_
I was expecting it_ → Je m'y attendais, mais on ne dit pas ce qu'il en est maintenant.
_
I had been expecting it_ → Je m'y attendais depuis un certain temps.


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## ruffiniere

I'm sorry Maître Capello but that does not answer my question on the use of past perfect. The past perfect is normally used when we are looking back from a situation to earlier situations. In my opinion, the right sentence should have been:"I _*had been expecting* _him to give me some money, *for* he *was earning* a lot at the time." That is my dilemna: *the two sentences are related by "for"* . Still, I was told we could use it as in clause 3.... Thank you all the same.


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## geostan

The juxtaposition of the past perfect and the present perfect progressive, especially with a word like _recently_, seems illogical, since the expectation apparently occurred prior to the knowledge that recently he has been earning a lot.

However, if the following direct translation is possible in French, I suppose it is possible in English.

_Je m'étais attendu à ce qu'il me donne de l'argent, car il en gagne beaucoup depuis peu._


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## ruffiniere

I agree with you. The French would say." Je m'attends à ce qu'il me donne de l'argent car il en gagne  beaucoup ces temps ci."  and  "je m'attendais à ce qu'il me donne de l'argent car il en gagnait beaucoup ces temps derniers" and finally "je m'étais attendu à ce qu'il me donne de l'argent car il en gagnait beaucoup ces temps derniers" Thank you for your help Geostan.


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## Thomas1

How about the following situation:
  I _had been expecting _him to give me some money, when we met last Monday, for he has been earning a lot recently.

  Say that recently means a couple of months in this case, the person in question still earns a  lot. He has been earning a lot of money for a couple of months, so I had been expecting that he would give me some when we met on Monday.


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## geostan

Why wouldn't you say _I was expecting_...?


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## Thomas1

I am trying to find some possible situation in which you could use the past perfect. I understand past perfect the way Cropje does.
I understand past perfect going back in time, say that I had been expecting him to give me some money since I found out about his high earnings (which he still receives). My expecting finished at the meeting. 
__________________*o--------------------x*_________________NOW


Past continuous suggests to me fousing more on the background for the meeting/situation.
__________________*----------------x**-----?*_________________NOW
We don't know much about the end of my expecting (and we don't need to know the begininng too).

Anyway, I'd appreciate pointing out any flaws if I've got it wrong.


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## ruffiniere

Interesting, Thomas1, but what about the context of "for he has been earning a lot recently?" (see my fist message). Is there room for the use of a past perfest?


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## Maître Capello

Ruffiniere, dans ton exemple, le pluperfect avec le present perfect est aussi illogique que le plus-que-parfait avec le présent en français comme expliqué par Geostan. La concordance des temps n'est pas respectée et il faut donc _a priori_ éviter cette conjonction de temps.

Elle reste éventuellement possible dans le cas improbable où un autre événement surviendrait entre _s'attendre_ et _gagner_ comme le suggère Thomas :

_Je m'étais attendu à ce qu'il me donne de l'argent avant de partir à l'étranger, car il en gagne  beaucoup ces derniers temps._

_I had been expecting him to give me some money before traveling abroad for he has been earning a lot recently.
_
En français comme en anglais, cette phrase est bancale… En effet, le present perfect (traduit par un présent en français) suggère un événement récent et d'actualité, ce qui est incompatible avec le plus-que-parfait.


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## ruffiniere

Tout à fait d'accord Maître Capello (voir ma réponse à Geostan); c'est ce que je souhaitais   confirmer  . Merci à tous pour cette discussion intéressante.


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## MoonNight

Hello everyone,
I need your help because I don't know if my sentence is correct.
I want to say : "Je m'étais attendu à ce que ce soit un événement important jusqu'à ce que je finisse par entrer dans l'avion." (This last action happened in the past)
And I wrote this : "I *had been expecting* it to be an important event until I ended up entering the plane." I want to value this period of exciting waiting.
Is the chosen tense wrong or not ? […] Had been / Was expecting ?
I'm not very fluent in English so I hesitate.

Thank you.


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## Gemsh

I think had been expecting, because the expectation finished when you entered the plane. Was expecting is when two events coincide; for example, I was expecting it to be an important event when the plane arrived (the background event is interrupted by another event).


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## OLN

[…]

Note :
Comparé au classique imparfait "je m'attendais", le plus-que-parfait fait penser à une action brève, alors qu'_attendre _ne l'est normalement pas.
"Je m'y étais attendu un court instant" est-il bien le sens voulu ?

Je n'emploierais à priori pas un temps composé en français. Autre exemple : _Il pensait /croyait /était certain que... jusqu'à ce qu'on lui démontre le contraire_ / _Avant qu'on ne lui démontre le contraire, il pensait que... *.* _Je ne dirais ni "il avait pensé" ni "il a pensé".


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## MoonNight

En fait, la phrase m'est d'abord venue en anglais et quand j'ai posté ce message, je me suis dit qu'il fallait que je traduise ma pensée : j'ai alors hésité sur la traduction en français la plus appropriée et j'ai finalement décidé de mettre "je m'étais attendu_" _pour justifier l'emploi du _past perfect_. 
Je trouvais plutôt ambigu de dire "Je m'attendais" suivi de "jusqu'à ce que j'entre dans l'avion", car on aurait été tenté de traduire avec _have been expecting [...] until I enter the plane. _Enfin, moi, en tout cas, j'aurais été tenté de procéder ainsi_._
Or, comme je l'ai indiqué, l'entrée dans l'avion est une action déjà passée, ce qui fait de l'attente une action antérieure à une action déjà antérieure. Bref  
Cela dit, le "je m'étais attendu" traduit mal l'idée de durée , comme tu le dis.


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## Gemsh

MoonNight said:


> Or, comme je l'ai indiqué, l'entrée dans l'avion est une action déjà passée, ce qui fait de l'attente une action antérieure à une action déjà antérieure.



So the first action was you were waiting in anticipation, and the second action was that you got on the plane, is that correct? If that's the case, my instinct tells me had been. I was expecting could indicate that you continued to be in expectation after you got on the plane, and that it's simply a background event.


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## MoonNight

That's correct. I agree with you, so I'll keep _had been. 
_
I thank all those who said their opinion about my question.


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