Inchoateknowledge  +  264142 Fri, 08 Sep 06 12:08 PM If I want to say that on the face of it something is valuable, but later it turns out that, actually, it is without value, which sentence applies more: 1 At first, I thought it would be valuable. 2 At first, I had thought it would be valuable. I read upon it somewhere, but I can not recover the info. To my mind, the second means that it later turned out we had made the wrong assumption. The first does not imply the future outcome. If none of them are correct to mean what I want to say, what would you say? Thanks Inchoateknowledge Joined on Wed, May 3 2006 Senior Member 2,549 Beep! Beep! :)

	Welkins2139  +  264149 Fri, 08 Sep 06 12:33 PM  At first I thought it would be valuable. The verb tense is past perfect in dependent clause and the verb tense is past in independent clause. Welkins2139 Joined on Sun, Oct 9 2005 Full Member 414 Determination, Dedication and Devotion! Verbs, Tenses, Clauses, Past Perfect

	Inchoateknowledge  +  264155 Fri, 08 Sep 06 12:47 PM Hi, Both sentences contain an ellipted dependent (relative) clause and are, IMO, equally acceptable, but apply in different cases. At first, I (had) thought that it would be valuable. thanks Inchoateknowledge Clauses

	Marius Hancu  +  264168 Fri, 08 Sep 06 01:28 PM >To my mind, the second means that it later turned out we had made the wrong assumption. I think that both are implying this and that both are correct. The crux is more in "at first" and less in the verbs. However, the 2nd one could only be used in the usual past perfect environments, where you have another action which is preceeded by "had thought." Marius Hancu Joined on Wed, Apr 26 2006 Veteran Member 11,673 Verbs, Past Perfect