Which words should I use?

0 01b00was buying02b00 0-

0 Hi Yoong,01blockquote

01cite10Yoong Liat12cite10Mother bargained with the stallholder at the market as this was the first time she11b10 was buying / 12b10 had been10 11b10buying12b10 / 11b10had bought12b10 fish from him.12br
12blockquote

10I'd say on

0 Hi Kooyeen01i02br
02br
00That 01u00was02u00 the first time I 01u00had bought02u00 fish there.02br
00That 01u00was02u00 the first time I 01u00bought02u00 fish there.02br
02br
02i00The first sentence is correct. The second isn't. The 'had'

0 Hi,02br
02br
00I still remember my first post here (well, I don't, but let's pretend I really remember my first post). That was the first time I 01b00[posted/ had posted]02b00 a question here.02br
02br
00I'm pretty sure both the simple past and the past perfect are ok. Actually, I think most native speakers often use the simple pas

0My try:02br
02br
00was buying ---------my first choice in this situation02br
02br
00had bought ---------ok0-

0 01i00Of all the times I have bought fish here, this is the first. 02i00(the present perfect allows me to consider a time span that ends at the present moment)02br
01i00Of all the times I had bought fish there, that was the first.02i00 (the past perfect allows me to consider a time span that ends at that point in the past)02br
01i

0 01blockquote

01cite10Yoong Liat12cite11i11b10All the grammarians prescribe that the past perfect tense should be used . Hence ' ... bought fish ... ' is not correct.12b12i12br
12blockquote

10Oh, well, you mention "grammarians" and "prescribe", so you are considering "prescriptive grammar". I n

0In Kooyeen's sentence "That was the first time I bought fish there", the simple past tense is just fine. I don't think even the most prescriptive grammarian would have a problem with that sentence. On the contrary, without some kind of clear justification for the past perfect (such as at least adding the word 'ever'), I think a prescriptive grammarian would be more likely to have a problem wi

0 was buying0-

0 01blockquote

01cite10Marius Hancu12cite10was buying12br
12blockquote

10Hi, 02br
00I don't think "was buying" makes sense. I was told to avoid "the first time" + "present continuous" in any case (or in most cases, at least). I had a long chat with a native speaker, and she kept saying that sentences like "This i