Confusion over past perfect tense - (English as a second language users)

[venkatasu]

Hello forum users,

I have difficulty in understanding passage that includes some sentences with Past Perfect Tense for which I have threaded a title 'past perfect tense (English as a second language users)' yesterday. Please refer it (not necessary but if needed).

Thanks to senior teacher Anglika. She responded quickly by providing a good example (which is given below) and some valuable links. I have copied and pasted here for the benefit of other users.

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Two events are referred to: Action A, followed by Action B:

She cooks the meal; He eats the meal >> When she had cooked the meal, he ate it.

He prepares a report; he sends a report >> When he had written the report, he sent it to the committee.

Jo writes a letter to Kay; Jo sends the letter> Jo had written to Kay about the holiday and sent it to him on his birthday.

See these links for more examples:

ENGLISH PAGE - Past Perfect

Past Perfect 1 - An English-Zone.Com Quiz
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But, as I had (see now I have a confusion here whether to use 'had' or not) told earlier I confuse myself with the understanding of past perfect tense sentences in paragraph.

When reading or writing such paragraphs, I am puzzled with the usage of past perfect tense. I think I have to go through the context. But it seems difficult and confusing. It's not that much easier in examples for past perfect tense which involves 2 sentences.(referred two past actions and first completed action takes the past perfect tense).

I as a English as second language user come across such passages in day to day life in news papers, essays, etc. I may even have to write such passages. (often with confusion like when and where to put 'had')

A sample paragraph

When he woke up that morning, the first thing Bob heard was rain. It was a steady rain that showed no signs of stopping. Bob was downcast. This afternoon was the first game of baseball season, and he was slated to pitch. Last night he had checked the weather and the weatherman had not mentioned rain - he had predicted a partly cloudy day with temperatures in the sixties. Bob got dressed and ate his breakfast unenthusiastically. He was thinking of how much he had prepared for this day during the past weeks and how much he had looked forward to pitching the opening game. He had improved quite a bit since last season, and his coach had complimented him on his performance in loast week's practice game. Waiting one more day to open the season would seem like an eternity! Bob sighed and turned the radio on. The weatherman was revising his forecast from partly cloudy to an 80 percent chance of rain.

source : Writing communicate activities in English

Thank you in advance

[Anglika]

A sample paragraph

When he woke up that morning, the first thing Bob heard was rain. It was a steady rain that showed no signs of stopping. Bob was downcast. This afternoon was the first game of baseball season, and he was slated to pitch. Last night he had checked the weather and the weatherman had not mentioned rain - he had predicted a partly cloudy day with temperatures in the sixties. [all actions that took place before he woke this morning] Bob got dressed and ate his breakfast unenthusiastically. He was thinking of how much he had prepared for this day during the past weeks and how much he had looked forward to pitching the opening game. He had improved quite a bit since last season, and his coach had complimented him on his performance in last week's practice game.[all actions that took place before he woke this morning] Waiting one more day to open the season would seem like an eternity! Bob sighed and turned the radio on. The weatherman was revising his forecast from partly cloudy to an 80 percent chance of rain.

source : Writing communicate activities in English

Thank you in advance

You are in grave danger of getting into a twist!

Conceptually, the past is an action that happened:

I walked to school.

The past perfect is a past action that happened before related past events or times:

I had walked to school every morning before the bus route was changed. After that, I took a bus.