Date: 2007-03-28 05:20 am (UTC)
AFAIK, the way "gotten" is used in the sentences above is correct American English. And the way the past tenses are used tells you when the action occurred, just as it's supposed to.

but shouldn't the second sentence be simple past like the first????

The second part of the second sentence is still referring to what happened the first time the mail arrived and surprised Harry, so it wouldn't make sense for it to be simple past. It doesn't switch back to the present moment until the next sentence (which I didn't include).

Dumbledore hadn't got to his feet BEFORE that moment; he got to his feet AT THAT MOMENT

Actually I read that as Harry looked up and noticed that Dumbledore was standing, so he must have just gotten to his feet. He was already standing when Harry looked; hence it was in the past.
This account has disabled anonymous posting.
If you don't have an account you can create one now.
HTML doesn't work in the subject.
More info about formatting

October 2015

S M T W T F S
    123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627 28293031

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 8th, 2025 11:46 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios