Simple past or past perfect

Question

Which one of the two senteces below is correct?
He didn't come back from the meeting before I left home.
He hadn't come back from the meeting before I left home.

I aprreciate you taking time to answer my question.

Deadrat · Accepted Answer

Are you speaking about the past from the perspective of right now? Yes, your leaving home and his coming back both have happened.

Is there a past point of reference? Yes, that point is that moment in the past when you left home.

Are you talking about an event that happened further back in the past than your past reference point? Yes, we don't know exactly when he came back but it was sometime before the past reference point, when you left.

When the answer to all three questions is yes, the verb for action before the reference point should be the past perfect. That's "had (not) come." "Did (not) come" is simple past. To get the negative sense, English uses the past auxiliary "did." It might be clearer in the positive, where your choices are

He came [simple past] back home from the meeting before I left home.
He had come [past perfect] back home from the meeting before I left home.

Anonymous · Answer

The sentence above is what I told my boss about 5 hours after coming home from work. I used past perfect, but I wasn't quite sure if I had used the correct tense.

Deadrat · Answer

Good job, then.

Simple past or past perfect

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions