I had spoken or I spoke
When you are talking about past tense, which should I use?
I spoke about it two meetings ago.I had spoken or I spoke
When you are talking about past tense, which should I use?
I had spoken or I spoke
When you are talking about past tense, which should I use?
Of course you used two different sentences, and what you demonstrated is that the simple past and past perfect can have different associated grammar.Here you have two diferrent tenses. When you say "I spoke to him an hour ago" you mean you did something in the past. But when you say "I had spoken to him by the time I met you" you mean you (had already spoken)(spoke) before meeting.
Offhand, I can't think of a situation in which one would have to use "had spoken".
I agree that in David's sentence you can't just substitute "spoke" for "had spoken" and still keep the meaning as clear.2006:Offhand, I can't think of a situation in which one would have to use "had spoken".
I had spoken at Feminist Meetings a couple of times, but you can understand just how nervous I was about this one, with the Gloria Steinham being on the rostrum also.