In Simple past^x, Past perfect^x

Of course the first sentence is correct, but my point was to the incomplete 2nd sentence. Why do you CUT my sentence? This is NOT my sentence: Several thousand people had been killed by the earthquake in China. Also, your latest sentence should be: When the earthquake struck China, several...

Hi Goodman, Well, I understood that in fact there isn't an exact grammatic explanation why we use "It's" with plural nouns, isn't it? Is it the same as to ask for example, why the simple past and past perfect of the verb to cut is : cut - cut. Am I wrong? So, when...

1. I thought about what you said today and I am going to tell you differently than I had told (told -- OK?? OK. ) you at our last meeting. 2. I took the stuff you mailed home yesterday and found it had been damaged en route to here. I would not substitute the simple past here. 3. I was...

Applicant: Hello. I'm here for that job for which you need a technician. My grammar is good. For example, I never end a sentence with a preposition. *smile*Employer: Oh, that don't matter. *smile* We gotta do some stuff with computers, websites, y'know, crap like that. *light a cigar*...

 Here is  the 'blog' referred to:StartFragment>"The High Court had on July 1, 2003, found theboy, then aged 12, guilty of murdering the 11-year-old girl at her house inSentul, Kuala Lumpur, by stabbing her 20 times with a sharp object on May 30,2002" in the news proper on...

Thank you Grammar Geek. The past perfect is not to be used for a definite point of time in the past (like yesterday). Like it or not, I am afraid this is the rule. I have come across a blog post titled Simple Past Tense against Past Perfect which hopefully can do the necessary...

Hi, 1. When you use the word 'when', do you have to use a past perfect in the subordinate clause to denote the past activity or can we use a past there like the main clause to make the context apparent? When he had eaten his lunch, he rose up got up and went home. When he finished (or...

The past perfect (pluperfect) is correct in all three sentences. They refer to an action completed before another action expressed in the past. Good job.

Hello 1. This morning most of the students arrived at school fifteen minutes after the lesson had begun. 2. The traffic was terrible, so by the time we arrived at the airport, our flight had left. 3. When we met I had a strange feeling I had seen him somewhere else. I would use the past...

Living: he is a former detective or he was/used to be a detective.Dead: he was a detective at the time of his death; he was a former detective (before another job); he had been a detective before becoming a bank officer; (this last one could also be used while living).The point is:...