Question

How do i rewrite this. After cleaning all day, the apartment was as sterile as an operating room l

Answer 1

The apartment was as sterile as an operating room after I spent all day cleaning it.

Answer 2

Answer:

The right way to rewrite the sentence is the following one:

After I had spent all day cleaning the apartment, it was as sterile as an operating room.

Explanation:

We want to convey the idea of two things that happened at different times of a day, which means there was a chronological order in which those events took place. Therefore, we want to use two verb tenses:

Past Perfect Tense: for the event that happened first.

Simple Past Tense: for the event that happened some time after the first one.

Check it out:

         Past Perfect (1st event)                              Simple Past (2nd Event)

                 ↑                                                                  ↑

After I had spent all day cleaning the apartment, it was as sterile as an operating room.