Are you saying that the past perfect is correct when used in this way: "By the time something happened, something else had already happened." Thanks, Martha.
~~~~~
Martha,
The past perfect is correct
ONLY when used in this way. There is no remote past in English; the past is past. The Battle of Hastings was a long time ago but it WAS fought in 1066. 'Had been' won't help the Anglo-Saxons a whit, even now.
And the past perfect is NOT used to show that one past event occurred before another. 'Yesterday, I went to the store and bought peaches', with nary a 'had' in sight.
In all cases, as can be clearly demonstrated, the past perfect is a specialized device that applies in very specific situations in which the timing, the sequence, is important. Once grasped, there is no question as to correctness or incorrectness, despite all the thousands of crazy sounds that come from peoples mouths and pens, among which are putting 'had' in front of past tense verbs and using 'had been' instead of 'was' and 'were', both of which errors are common.
The past perfect has not been taught for at least half a century but it should not die, indeed it cannot die, because it has a very specific meaning, a meaning which is there whether anyone sees it or not.
These sentences came in yesterday, off-list and from France, interestingly enough, in response to "Bloodmoney".
When Brad got up, his roommate had made coffee.
When Brad got up, his roommate made coffee.
Before Brad got up, his roommate made coffee.
Are these
correct?
Indeed they are correct. In the first sentence, the coffee was made before, and in the second, after. By the time something happened, 'Brad got up', something else had
already happened, 'his roommate had made coffee'.
Nice of you to stop by, Martha. I
hope my reply is complete enough for the moment and gentle enough. There are thousands of English teachers in America, so there are lots of teachers who can learn to teach a useful device that is in our language, regardless of whether it's recognized. It's still right there where it's always been, waiting to lend a helping hand.