past perfect tense

Question

After only one week of captivity look at the Spanish he had learned!
This is a sentence I stumbled upon in Martin Hewing's CPA grammar.
Why is past perfect used there? Shouldn't there be used past simple?
As I have learned, past perfect is used to describe past action which happened before some other past action. In this sentence, as I understand it, past perfect is used to describe an action that happened after some other past action. How can this be? I would appreciate if someone could help.

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

After only one week of captivity look at the Spanish he had learned!
This is a sentence I stumbled upon in Martin Hewing's CPA grammar.
Why is past perfect used there? Shouldn't there be used past simple?
As I have learned, past perfect is used to describe past action which happened before some other past action.
Or before some time in the past. eg It was 2003. He had learned Spanish.

In this sentence, as I understand it, past perfect is used to describe an action that happened after some other past action. How can this be? I would appreciate if someone could help.

After only one week of captivity look at the Spanish he had learned! He clearly learned it before the end of that week.

After only one week of captivity look at the Spanish he learned! Could in theory mean he learned it after the end of that week

Clive.

CalifJim · Answer

djolecWhy is past perfect used there?

Would it help to rephrase it like this?

He had learned an amazing amount of Spanish by the end of one week of captivity.

The ending of that week is the "event" in the past, and the learning of Spanish is something that happened prior to that point in the past.

In my opinion, that's why the past perfect is used.

CJ

Djolec · Answer

thx a lot

past perfect tense

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