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30 Jun 2020
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English (US)
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What is the difference between I went to the dentist a week earlier. and I had been to the dentist a week earlier. ?Feel free to just provide example sentences.
What is the difference between I went to the dentist a week earlier. and I had been to the dentist a week earlier. ?Feel free to just provide example sentences.
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30 Jun 2020
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- English (US)
- English (UK)
The first is the simple past tense, whilst the second is the pluperfect past. You use the pluperfect to say that something has occurred before another thing in the past. (The phrase which gives this information is then put in the perfect or simple past tense.)
eg. "I had been to the dentist a week earlier (pluperfect) than I ate that lunch (simple past)."
Whereas "I went to the dentist a week earlier" is fine on its own as a sentence in the simple past.
As a note, in informal spoken language use, I'm not sure many people would mind you not using the pluperfect properly, but I wouldn't count on it in a test.
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- English (US)
- English (UK)
The first is the simple past tense, whilst the second is the pluperfect past. You use the pluperfect to say that something has occurred before another thing in the past. (The phrase which gives this information is then put in the perfect or simple past tense.)
eg. "I had been to the dentist a week earlier (pluperfect) than I ate that lunch (simple past)."
Whereas "I went to the dentist a week earlier" is fine on its own as a sentence in the simple past.
As a note, in informal spoken language use, I'm not sure many people would mind you not using the pluperfect properly, but I wouldn't count on it in a test.
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- Korean
@n00btotale Thank you very much for your very detailed explanation!! So, you wouldn't use the pluperfect past sentence (I had been to the dentist a week earlier) on its own? Does it always need the phrase you added(than I ate that lunch)?
- English (US)
- English (UK)
@onesies To my very limited understanding of it in German and English, I think that is the case.
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