Verb tenses: past perfect vs present perfect

[prokopton]

As much as possible, I'm trying to use past perfect throughout.

1. Our ancestors’ innate yearning for knowledge HAS persisted to this day, thus our obsession with gods.

2. Our ancestors’ innate yearning for knowledge HAD persisted to this day, thus our obsession with gods.

-1 is the present tense. I want to keep to the past tense but imply that we (most of us anyway) are still obsessed with gods.

-Is 2 grammatically correct? But at the same time imply that we're still obsessed with gods?

I used google and got the results below. Then took a nap.


Present
I persist
you persist
he/she/it persists
we persist
you persist
they persist

Present continuous
I am persisting
you are persisting
he/she/it is persisting
we are persisting
you are persisting
they are persisting

Present perfect
I have persisted
you have persisted
he/she/it has persisted
we have persisted
you have persisted
they have persisted

Present perfect continuous
I have been persisting
you have been persisting
he/she/it has been persisting
we have been persisting
you have been persisting
they have been persisting

Present subjunctive
I persist
you persist
he/she/it persist
we persist
you persist
they persist

Simple past
I persisted
you persisted
he/she/it persisted
we persisted
you persisted
they persisted

Past continuous
I was persisting
you were persisting
he/she/it was persisting
we were persisting
you were persisting
they were persisting

Past perfect
I had persisted
you had persisted
he/she/it had persisted
we had persisted
you had persisted
they had persisted

Past perfect continuous
I had been persisting
you had been persisting
he/she/it had been persisting
we had been persisting
you had been persisting
they had been persisting

Past subjunctive
I persisted
you persisted
he/she/it persisted
we persisted
you persisted
they persisted

Past perfect subjunctive
I had persisted
you had persisted
he/she/it had persisted
we had persisted
you had persisted
they had persisted

Future
I will persist
you will persist
he/she/it will persist
we will persist
you will persist
they will persist

Future continuous
I will be persisting
you will be persisting
he/she/it will be persisting
we will be persisting
you will be persisting
they will be persisting

Future perfect
I will have persisted
you will have persisted
he/she/it will have persisted
we will have persisted
you will have persisted
they will have persisted

Future perfect continuous
I will have been persisting
you will have been persisting
he/she/it will have been persisting
we will have been persisting
you will have been persisting
they will have been persisting

Conditional present
I would persist
you would persist
he/she/it would persist
we would persist
you would persist
they would persist

Conditional perfect
I would have persisted
you would have persisted
he/she/it would have persisted
we would have persisted
you would have persisted
they would have persisted

Conditional present progressive
I would be persisting
you would be persisting
he/she/it would be persisting
we would be persisting
you would be persisting
they would be persisting

Conditional perfect progressive
I would have been persisting
you would have been persisting
he/she/it would have been persisting
we would have been persisting
you would have been persisting
they would have been persisting

Imperative
you persist
we Let´s persist
you persist

Present participle
persisting


Past participle
persisted

 

[prokopton]

Or is there a way to rewrite it?

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I think you're massively overthinking it. Personally, I'd take out both has or had and avoid the whole messy tense issue, and the past is implied and reflected in the present (which is,
I think, what you want?). And it reads tighter... Also, I'd have the gods for rhythm.

 

[Phyrebrat]

What *she said.

pH
* Jo.

 

[prokopton]

Thanks, Jo and Phyrebrat. It does read tighter and the past and present are both implied.

 

[chrispenycate]

Sometimes, when you are narrating your story in past tense (generally what they refer to as 'simple past', and I learned as 'imperfect', but occasionally needing 'continuous' or 'perfect' {their 'present perfect}), you need to point to some earlier time, which was already past and passed when your story is taking place [I had already been a priest more than twenty years when the nomads flooded into our land]. To make a distance between 'past' and 'paster' their 'past perfect', my 'pluperfect' exists, and structures time into four, rather than three, slices:- now (what is happening), to be (what will happen) then (what I am talking about having happened) and distant past, any time between the creation and the narration.

If you stick to one past tense a time dimention has been lost, and the only way to structure your timeline is to tell the story in order, with flashbacks and forward jumps in sequence with the main action, or in undefined time. Learning to use the extra dimension of time depth increases your flexibility of description, even if you don't use it frequently. While I admit that a structure like :- 'The sun had been shining and birds singing when the invaders had ridden over the hill, capturing my family and me and setting us the backbreaking toil we are still performing today, but someday I will break the bonds and be free again, and my story starts at the very beginning of this process, on another bright and pleasant morning', won't be needed often, the order relationship between events is maintained - is this not a sufficient reason to learn the more complex, older forms?

 

[Ursa major]

1. Our ancestors’ innate yearning for knowledge HAS persisted to this day, thus our obsession with gods.

2. Our ancestors’ innate yearning for knowledge HAD persisted to this day, thus our obsession with gods.

-1 is the present tense. I want to keep to the past tense but imply that we (most of us anyway) are still obsessed with gods.

-Is 2 grammatically correct? But at the same time imply that we're still obsessed with gods?

Example (2) is correct if the sentence is meant to be written in the past tense. (The verb 'had persisted' is in the past perfect, just as 'has persisted' is the present perfect).