Could anyone help???

Even though, blah blah blah or Even though, blah blah blah :?: :?: :?:
Should there be a comma after even though?

One more question. If I am writing about events in the past:

I graduated from high school in 1998. It has/had been seven years as the Soviet Union fell apart, and Ukraine has just begun to develop as an independent country.

has been seven years or had been seven years :?: :?: :?: Present perfect, past perfect... I just hate them

And what about the rest of the sentence? Is it correct?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The_lamb

I graduated from high school in 1998. It has/had been seven years as the Soviet Union fell apart, and Ukraine has just begun to develop as an independent country.

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It had been seven years since the soviet union fell apart and ukraine had just began to delelope as an .... etc.

The sentence should be "blablabla, even though blablabla" or "even though blablabla, blablabla". Even though is the beginning of a clause and can't be separated by a comma from the rest of the clause, it wouldn't make any sense grammatically.

It has been seven years since the Soviet Union fell apart and Ukraine has just begun to develop as an independent country.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by The_lamb

I graduated from high school in 1998. It has/had been seven years as the Soviet Union fell apart, and Ukraine has just begun to develop as an independent country.

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I don't know if it's correct, but I know that most people from the southern US would say it like this in conversation:

I graduated from high school in 1998. I has been seven years since the Soviet Union fell apart, and the Ukraine has just begun to develop as an independent country.

We would say "has been" because the event happened in the past and the result of that event has continued into the present. I hope that helps and doesn't confuse you even more. :|

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Тостер

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I don't know if it's correct, but I know that most people from the southern US would say it like this in conversation:

...

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I think it's just grammatically the right way to say it. It's a past event that still continues in the present.

but wait a second.... the 7 years refers to 1998, not 2005.

<Writing in 2005>: in 1998 it had been seven years since the Soviet Union fell apart.

I can't see any other way around it. If you say 'I graduated from high school in 1998. It has been seven years since the Soviet Union fell apart', it is understood that the seven-year span is 1998-2005, which is wrong.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Spiderkat

It has been seven years since the Soviet Union fell apart and Ukraine has just begun to develop as an independent country.

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WRONG. Everybody just STOP. I already answered this person question. And i did it Right.

@Spidercat. We appriciate your input BUT PLEASE the question is ALREADY answered, AND you continued by making a FALSE correction.

This person was talking about a time in the past, when, he had graduated highschool, and the soviet union had fallen apart and ukrain had begun to be an independent nation.

Has = wrong.

Question = Answered.

@midnightsun- Yes, you got the right idea. Its 'had'. Just exactly like i said.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dogboy182

WRONG. Everybody just STOP. I already answered this person question. And i did it Right.

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Agreed. Dogboy is correct...on both counts.

Sorry, I misunderstood. I thought that Lamb was refering to the time period between 1998 and 2005. If there were the case then "has" would be correct, but as it was not, "had" is the right choice. Sorry, my bad.

dogboy, you answered the second question beautifully, but not the first. Spiderkat did.

the_lamb if you start the sentence with "Even though", there is no comma.

Even though it is hot in Sacramento, it is more fun to live in Sunnyvale.

If "even though" is in the middle of the sentence it is preceded by a comma.

I like driving through red lights, even though it is illegal.

Oh god.....I'm glad we got that settled!!

I'm going to go and make a sandwich.

dogboy, you got the right tense, but you did not provide the full correct answer. You said
>had just began to delelope

the correct form is

had just begun to develop