Usage of past tense and past perfect tense
Use of past perfect is essentially a chronological factor, when two events that started and ended in the past are to be marked with proper tenses. In this scenario, the one that is clearly the earlier, will be in past perfect and the one that is later in simple past. Supposing there were more than two event the last of one of the series of action will entail a simple past tense, while the all the previous ones will entail use of past perfect.
Thus, to cite an example,
1. I
had woken up pretty late in the morning and
darted to the office like a bullet.
Only two events and hence the last one is in simple past and the earlier one is in past perfect.
2. I
had woken up, pretty late,
taken bath quickly,
eaten my breakfast in a gulp and
darted to the office like a bullet.
More than two events, only the last one in simple past and all the other earlier ones, though more than one, marked in past perfect.
By logical predication, a past perfect can not exist alone without an accompanying simple past. Thus when only one event is involved, you can not express it in the past perfect.
Ex; I
had taken two cups of tea this morning
Ex; I had lived in Canada in the 1980s
Both the above examples are wrong, because they are not accompanied by a simple past event.
The correct answers are: I
took two cups of tea; I
lived in Canada 1980s.
Similarly, even if there is more the one event, say two, three or four, you can not mark all of them with past perfect. At least, one function should be there in simple past, naturally the last of the events, to expose the chronological difference
3. When the events that occurred in the past are not distinguishable in regard to the timing, or if they occurred at the same time, then only simple past should be used for all the events.
Ex: As I
entered the room, I
was shocked to see the students snoring
Here,
entering and
being shocked are happening at the same time. You can not say one is earlier than the other. So use simple past for both.
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