'had'

victoI'm told these sentences have two very different meanings.

They don’t. The past perfect is unnecessary here.

Hi Victo,

The first sentence is what we call a past simple and we use a past simple when we know when someting happened in the past, so in this case yesterday.

Your second sentence is what we call a past perfect. In the English language we use the past perfect to structure the past. In other words the past perfect is only used when (next to crashing the car), someting else happen

Simple past, Past perfect and present past are really confusing tenses. You have explained it in a better way. Please create your account in EF so that English learners can get help properly.

Thank you, Sally.

victo-
1 Yesterday, he crashed his car.
2 Yesterday, he had crashed his car.

The past perfect (had crashed) is usually pretty much meaningless when it occurs in an isolated clause.

The past perfect is a contextually dependent tense. It needs other clauses that establish a past point of view before it can make sense.

See
S

CalifJimThe past perfect (had crashed) is usually pretty much meaningless when it occurs in an isolated clause.
The past perfect is a contextually dependent tense. It needs other clauses that establish a past point of view before it can make sense.

Is there even a possible context in which the past perfect would be called for in that particular sentence (i

Aspara GusIs there even a possible context in which the past perfect would be called for in that particular sentence (i.e., with yesterday)? I can’t think of one.

I was about to say that 'yesterday' made it impossible, but then I thought that somebody here would come up with one and prove me wrong, so I decided to remain silent on that question.

CalifJimThe past perfect (had crashed) is usually pretty much meaningless when it occurs in an isolated clause.

Sir, In this case saying "We had lost in mountains last summer" is meaningless and unnatural. The sentence may be natural if we say "We lost in mountains last summer"?

sundarnaz CalifJimThe past perfect (had crashed) is usually pretty much meaningless when it occurs in an isolated clause.Sir, In this case saying "We had lost in mountains last summer" is meaningless and unnatural. The sentence may be natural if we say "We lost in mountains last summer"?

Neither sentence is correct. It needs to be 'We were/got lost in the moun

thanks sir. Your correction shows that the sentence must be in simple past though the sentence was incorrect altogether.