PAST SIMPLE OR PAST PERFECT explanation and quiz of 25 MCQs for all

PAST SIMPLE OR PAST PERFECT

We use Past Indefinite (Simple) to say about past actions. It stresses the competition of an action. In sentences with the Simple past verb, the time of action may be expressed or not.

We came back yesterday. 

Columbus discovered America.

The past perfect shows that something had happened before another past event or past point of time. Thus it is past before past or double past.

Compare : 

1) The patient died. ( Simple past) 

2. The patient had died before the doctor arrived.

( The first completed action should be in past perfect and the second completed action in past indefinite).

Hence the past perfect can't be used when there is reference to only one past action.

I had got your message yesterday.( Not acceptable)

I got your message yesterday. ( Accepted)

When we refer to two past actions in a sentence, the past perfect is used for the earlier of the two actions.

However, if the two past actions took place in quick succession, the past simple is used to refer to both the actions as in: When he noticed me, he waved me.

The thief had escaped when the guard opened the gate.( Not acceptable)

The thief escaped when the guard had opened the gate.( Acceptable)

When one action happened well before another past action and the sequence is clearly expressed, the right tense form is past perfect. (Adopted from SADASIVA S)

Now take a quick quiz of 25 MCQs to check ourselves.

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