Few quick Grammar Questions

[sethgrant]

I have some quick questions...

.

how do I say, "as early as"

as in "He left miami as early as last week?"

- how do I say "is about to"

as in "He is about to leave"

finally To say he came by plane just say

Ta shi zuo feiji lai de?

[zhxlier]

1. 他早在上周就离开了迈阿密

2. 他快要走了

3. You are right

I have some quick questions...

.

how do I say, "as early as"

as in "He left miami as early as last week?"

- how do I say "is about to"

as in "He is about to leave"

finally To say he came by plane just say

Ta shi zuo feiji lai de?

[Hanyu'sWay]

as in "He left miami as early as last week"

I actually have a question about the setence.

I would say "He could have left as early as ...." or " He will be leaving as early as ...." depending on the circumstances. But when would you say "He left as early as..."?

[Artem]

"I couldn't find Jimmy all week; it seems he left as early as last week"

[Hanyu'sWay]

"I couldn't find Jimmy all week; it seems he left as early as last week"

Thanks. Could one say "... he had left...."?

[HashiriKata]

Could one say "... he had left...."?

You could. You tend to phrase your sentence according to what you judge necessary to say and what is not: "He left as early as last week" is more informative (but is not necessarily better) than "he had left".

[Artem]

You could say it either way. If you add the "had," it seems a little awkward because it's not needed. It also gives it a passive tone, which I don't think fits with the way I phrased it.

[TCcookie]

1) I couldn't find Jimmy all week; it seems he left as early as last week.

vs.

2) I couldn't find Jimmy all week; it seems he had left as early as last week.

Using had does not make 2 have a passive structure, it simply is using a different aspect (both, incidentally, are in the past tense, of course). "He left" is the simple completion aspect that does not have reference to any other point of time within in the discourse other than the speakers current time. You could say "I couldn't find Jimmy today; he left last week." or "I won't find Jimmy tomorrow; he left last week." "He left" is absolute relative to the current time frame. When you use "had left," this perfect aspect must have reference to some other point in the surrounding discourse whether contextually or explicitly. In the case of 2, this is probably an explicit reference to the time when the speaker was searching for Jimmy, i.e. I couldn't find Jimmy all week (this refers to a range of time "all week"--"couldn't" puts the range in the past); it seems he had (probably, because of context, referring to the range in the previous clause, but since it's past tense it means it's referring to the action being completed BEFORE the range referred to). left as early as last week.

Aspect and reference, especially in English with "to have," fascinate me. This is as I understand the case, but I don't have any official knowledge or terminology for what I'm trying to say here. But it definitely doesn't make it passive, and maybe someone else can give a better explanation or correct what I'm saying.