simple past vs. past perfect

[royljc]

Hi, Joe,

As I know, past perfect form is used when you describe two past events in different time order. Can I use past perfect to describe a single past event? On the other hand, can I use simple past form on the following sentence: "I lived in the US for three years" providing I no longer live in the US afterwards. I'm having problems defining the difference of these two forms.

I'll wait for your answers. Thanks.

[Joe Carillo]

As you correctly stated, the past perfect tense is used in a sentence that describes two past events that happened at different times, as in the following:

“The special car sale happened last week just when I had already bought my sedan.”

Note that in such sentences, the event that happened earlier—the one that doesn’t have a specified time of occurrence—takes the past perfect, while the later event—the one that does have a specified time of occurrence—takes the past tense.

But yes, the past perfect tense can also be used to describe a single past event. This is when the time of occurrence of that particular event in the past is not specified or is unknown, as in the following sentence:

“The evidence had disappeared.”

Normally, such sentences in the past perfect follow another sentence in the simple past tense, as in the following example:

“Two weeks ago, the investigators looked for proof of the presence of the suspects at the scene of the crime. By then, the evidence had disappeared.”

Now, is the use of the simple past tense in the following sentence of yours correct?

“I lived in the US for three years.”

Of course, but only if you no longer live in the United States at the time of speaking. If you still do, however, the present perfect progressive would need to be used in that sentence, as follows:

“I have been living in the US for three years now.”

If you have lived in the US for three years until shortly before the time of speaking, by which time you have moved to another country, the present perfect can be used:

“I have lived in the US for three years. Now I’m a Manila resident.”

These are just some of the shades of difference between the perfect tenses.

[Miss Mae]

Sir, does the past perfect tense rule also apply when narrating events in succession in a paragraph?

[Joe Carillo]

Yes, of course, the past perfect tense—and the present perfect and future perfect as well—definitely will apply when events are narrated in succession in a paragraph and in whole compositions for that matter. The perfect tenses enable the narrator to smoothly navigate the time continuum when telling a story, allowing him or her to move from the present to the past or to the future, then back to the present, without skipping a beat. Imagine the English language without the perfect tenses! Narratives will be able to move only haphazardly from the unfolding present, very much like the mixed-tense stories we hear from little children whose sense of time isn’t well-developed yet.

Let me show you how the perfect tenses work even in the simplest narratives, often doing their job unnoticed by both the narrator and the listener:

“Yesterday, I had just arrived at my office when the phone rang. It was my boss on the line. She said that she had just read my sales report and was terribly disappointed to know that I missed my sales quota by 25 percent. “This performance is totally unacceptable,” she said. “By the end of the third quarter, I expect you to have done much better than this, understand?” I was so humiliated by her frontal reprimand, but looking back, I realize now that I had indeed horribly slipped in my sales. I am therefore putting down in writing this commitment to my boss: that by the end of the third quarter, I will have recovered all of my sales deficits to date such that my first semester sales targets are fully met.”   

Now take a look at the tenses that I have italicized in the passage above:

(1) “had just arrived” – past perfect
(2) “the phone rang” – simple past tense
(3) “was on the line” – simple past tense
(4) “she said” – simple past tense
(5) “was terribly disappointed” – simple past tense
(6) “missed my sales quota” – simple past tense
(7) “is totally unacceptable” – present tense
(8 ) “she said” – present tense
(9) “have done much better” – future perfect
(10) “was so humiliated” – simple past tense
(11) “realize now” – present tense
(12) “had indeed horribly slipped” – past perfect
(13) “am putting down in writing” – present tense progressive
(14) “will have recovered” – future perfect
(15) “are fully met” – present tense   

As we can see, the narrator has deftly combined the simple tenses with the future perfect tenses to tell the story. Can you imagine how messy and confusing that story would have been without using the perfect tenses? This is why mastery of the perfect tenses is a must if we want to be excellent storytellers or narrators, whether personally or professionally.

[Bunty]

Simple past: Action completed in the past does not refer to any connection with the present.
I studied law at the university of Madrid.

Past perfect: Equivalent to "present perfect" but taking as reference a point in the past. - Action ended around the last time it's mentioned in the sentence.

Did you see him When You Went To His office? No, I Had left - Action ended at that point just past or even continued afterwards.
I Had Lived in Paris for 10 years When I decided to buy His own flat (continued living in Paris).