Had entered or entered?

Question

"When Jack entered the room, I didn't recognize him because he had lost so much weight and had grown a beard. He looked totally different!"My question is why I cannot use the past perfect (had entered) instead of the past simple (entered)?Thank you very much.

Abudona47 · Accepted Answer

i guess past perfect clear than past simple

thank you

Clive · Answer

Hi,

You can use it, but most native speakers would not.

Clive

Marold · Answer

Thank you clive for your reply.<img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>

Everlastinghope · Answer

Isn't it because the two actions happened one after the other ?
"When Jack entered the room, I didn't recognize him...etc"
That means that Jack entered the room then just after,I my reaction was not recognizing him.It's I think a matter of spontaneous action.Here in my opinion ,we can't talk about where the first action or the second is,because recognition is just a reaction.
What do you think ?

CalifJim · Answer

MaroldMy question is why I cannot use the past perfect (had entered) instead of the past simple (entered)?

That will spoil the time references. Here you establish the past as a reference time with two verbs in the past:

When Jack entered the room, I didn't recognize him*

Now that the past reference is established sufficiently, you can talk about things that happened before the entry and non-recognition:

because he had lost so much weight and had grown a beard. (before he entered, and therefore before I saw him but did not recognize him)

If you use had entered and had lost weight and had grown a beard, you're putting them all in the same time period, but that can't be. The weight loss and the beard growing had to be before the entry.

Make sense?

CJ

*In this kind of combination, the action in the when-clause always comes first, so you don't need any other grammatical device like the past perfect to indicate this.

When the chicken was done, we ate it.
The thieves ran away when the police arrived.
Everyone was amused when the teacher stood on the desk.

You would use the past perfect in a when-clause mostly for cases where the action took some time to happen, and the clause would probably contain "finally". But even here, 'had' is not absolutely necessary.

When the dust (had) finally settled, the volunteers attempted to rescue the earthquake victims.

CJ

Marold · Answer

Wow, CJ, thank you very much. So excellently explained. I think I have a better grasp of the matter discussed now.

Had entered or entered?

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