general grammar

Question

All the wooden houses were burned down before the fire engines arrived.

All the wooden houses had been burned down before the fire engines arrived.

Are both the sentences correct? If so, what is the difference?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Both are correct. The rest of the answer is more complicated.

were burned down

1. were in the state of having burned (down) (to the ground)
2. were burned down by someone (who set fire to them)

had been burned down

1. someone had already burned them down (i.e., set fire to them and caused them to burn to the ground) [same as 2. above.]

There's also

All the wooden houses burned down before the fire engines arrived.
All the wooden houses had burned down before the fire engines arrived.

Both mean that the houses were completely destroyed by fire before the fire engines arrived. Often the past perfect is not really needed because other elements in the sentence make clear what the time sequence is.

CJ

Milky · Answer

I agree with Jim, but I prefer the version with the past perfect. To me, it expresses more strongly that the firemen were too late.

Yoong Liat · Answer

Many thanks, CalifJim and Milky, for the explanation.

J Lewis · Answer

If you use the conjunction "before", the sequence of events is clear without using the Past Perfect. It is not clear with "when" and in that case you need to use the Past Perfect.

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