Tense

Question

Could you tell me which one is right between (A) and (B) in the following sentence?Thank you.She [ (A) was / (B) had been ] a teacher before she wrote her books.

Ivanhr · Accepted Answer

Either will work.

Lucas21c · Answer

Is there any difference in terms of meaning between them?

Tamguatlay · Answer

lucas21cCould you tell me which one is right between (A) and (B) in the following sentence?Thank you.She [ (A) was / (B) had been ] a teacher before she wrote her books.

"had been" emphasises that she was a teacher before she became a writer.

Anonymous · Answer

Suppose, for example, that she worked as a teacher from 1995 to 2005, then quit teaching in 2005, and started writing the books in 2006. Then, based on this time frame of reference, (A) - simple past tense - is talking about what she was doing during the years 1995 to 2005, that is, working as a teacher. And (B) - past perfect tense, which is used for completed action in past time - is talking about what she had completed - that is, her work as a teacher - before 2006.

For all practical purposes, in this particular situation, (A) and (B) mean the same thing, which is why most people would just use the simple past (A) here, rather than the more precise past perfect (B). However, there are situations where the past perfect must be used, for example: "By March 2010 she had written five books." You can't use "wrote" here. The specification of an exact date, by which a certain action had been completed in the past, grammatically forces the use of the more precise past perfect.

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