Difference between “I’d seen him” and “I saw him”.

[the batman learner]

We were at hotel yesterday and a guy came in I suddenly recognized him because I'd seen him at party before.

We were at hotel yesterday and a guy came in I suddenly recognized him because I saw him at party before.

 

[emsr2d2]

And yet again, you've given us two random sentences and no context. I'm starting to think you don't understand what "context" means. Also, in both sentences (which you should have numbered), you've written one long sentence that should have been separated into two.

 

[teechar]

I also wonder why you wrote "a guy", but "hotel" and "party" (without "a").

 

[bhaisahab]

I also wonder why you wrote "a guy", but "hotel" and "party" (without "a").

It is common with South Asian (India, Pakistan) people to not use articles, as they don't exist in Urdu, Hindi etc. So, in South Asian English, to say "I saw him at party" would be quite normal. Indian (South Asian) English is a recognised form of the language. I know that that doesn't explain why he used "a guy".

 

[Barque]

So, in South Asian English, to say "I saw him at party" would be quite normal.

It's only considered normal by people who don't know better, and by people who speak English very little in comparison to their native tongue. It isn't considered correct by the south Asians who do use articles regularly and correctly.

 

[the batman learner]

I think I've given the context, I don't know what else to give. I just want to know if in past I am going back to another past with word "Before" what should I use and what's the difference. I don't know what context to provide.

 

[Barque]

Please take care of your punctuation and capitalisation. It's difficult to understand your questions.

We were at hotel yesterday and a guy came in I suddenly recognized him because I'd seen him at party before.

We were at a hotel yesterday. A guy came in who I recognized. I'd seen him at a party.
We were at a hotel yesterday. A guy came in who I recognized from a party I'd been to.

 

[the batman learner]

Please take care of your punctuation and capitalisation. It's difficult to understand your questions.

We were at a hotel yesterday. A guy came in who I recognized. I'd seen him at a party.
We were at a hotel yesterday. A guy came in who I recognized from a party I'd been to.

I know the use here. I want to know with word "Before" as I mentioned up here.

 

[Barque]

I want to know with word "Before"

That wasn't your original question.

I'm not sure you're reading or following the answers you get.

I omitted "before" because it was unnecessary. You could also say "I'd seen him at a party before" or "I'd seen him before at a party".

 

[the batman learner]

Well sorry it's my fault. My real question is what's the difference here between past perfect and past simple with word "Before"? Past perfect is correct here but can we also use past simple "I saw him at the party before" because I've seen we can use because with both past perfect and past simple so here what's the difference between them and is past simple also correct here?

 

[Tarheel]

Past perfect is correct here, but can we also use past simple "I saw him at the party before"?

The question that might arise is "Before what?" If we're using past tense we are already talking about things that happened before now.

If you say "I saw him at the party" that would make perfect sense in the right context. Use "before" to indicate something happened previous to something else, not to indicate past tense. (See below )

He took his medicine before he went to bed.

The one thing (taking his medicine) happened prior to the other thing (going to bed) happened. Using "before" makes sense there. We don't use it to indicate past tense (everything that happened before now).

I hope that helps.

 

[bhaisahab]

It's only considered normal by people who don't know better, and by people who speak English very little in comparison to their native tongue. It isn't considered correct by the south Asians who do use articles regularly and correctly.

I disagree. I know a lot of people in Rajasthan who speak English daily and still do not use articles.

 

[the batman learner]

In present we say "I've seen him before" but If we also refer some specific day, time and place then we usually use past simple "I saw him at party before" Now we still can use present perfect here but past simple is totally fine here. So is it the same rule in past? If there's no specific time or place I would use past perfect "I'd seen" But in my example there's specific place "At party" so what should I use here? I think both can be used here but if past simple doing the job then using past perfect is unnecessary. That's what I think and I would like to know whether I am right about it or not?

 

[Barque]

I disagree. I know a lot of people in Rajasthan who speak English daily and still do not use articles.

Possible. Unfortunately there are lots of people in India who speak English regularly but don't necessarily speak it well.

My point is that it's not a standard feature of Indian English to drop articles, though it's common.

As an Indian who's spent most of my life in India, I can assure you there are people who use articles and try to speak it correctly (correctly as per native speaker standards).

 

[Tarheel]

In present we say "I've seen him before" but If we also refer some specific day, time and place then we usually use past simple "I saw him at party before".

It's possible that there might be times when "I've seen him before" would make sense. (That's present perfect.) But we don't use "before" to indicate past tense (which you are doing).

In the sentence "I saw him at a party" there is no reason to use "before".

Please read my previous post on this. (#11.)

 

[the batman learner]

It's possible that there might be times when "I've seen him before" would make sense. (That's present perfect.) But we don't use "before" to indicate past tense (which you are doing).

In the sentence "I saw him at a party" there is no reason to use "before".

Please read my previous post on this. (#11.)

We were at hotel yesterday and a guy came in I suddenly recognized him because I'd seen/saw him at party.

So here what should I use do they mean the same?

 

[Tarheel]

We were at hotel yesterday and a guy came in. I suddenly recognized him because I'd seen/saw him at a party.

So here what should I use here?

First, "suddenly" there is wholly unnatural. (It's grammatical because it's the right place for an adverb.) Second, say: "I recognized him because I'd seen him at a party." That what I want to say, but it's more complicated than that. For example, you could also say, "I recognized him because I saw him at a party once."

 

[the batman learner]

Oh thank you so much for keep answering my stupid questions

 

[emsr2d2]

Oh, thank you so much for keep answering my stupid questions.

They're not stupid questions but I do wonder if they might somewhat pointless questions. You seem to be looking for an absolute rule that you'll be able to apply to every sentence in every situation. English doesn't necessarily work that way. There are differences between the variants and context will almost always help. We've asked you to use real-life situations and to give us full context. If you're having trouble understanding what that means, here's what post #1 should have looked like (assuming this was a real-life situation):

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I was at a hotel last night with a group of friends when a man entered the lobby of the hotel. I thought I recognised him but couldn't immediately work out where from. I thought about it a bit and finally realised that I had seen him before - I met him at a party back in December! This morning, I was telling my work colleague what had happened but I don't know which of the following I should say:

1. We were at hotel yesterday and a guy came in I suddenly recognized him because I'd seen him at party before.
2. We were at hotel yesterday and a guy came in I suddenly recognized him because I saw him at party before.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

@the batman learner Can you now see what we mean by context?

 

[the batman learner]

They're not stupid questions but I do wonder if they might somewhat pointless questions. You seem to be looking for an absolute rule that you'll be able to apply to every sentence in every situation. English doesn't necessarily work that way. There are differences between the variants and context will almost always help. We've asked you to use real-life situations and to give us full context. If you're having trouble understanding what that means, here's what post #1 should have looked like (assuming this was a real-life situation):

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I was at a hotel last night with a group of friends when a man entered the lobby of the hotel. I thought I recognised him but couldn't immediately work out where from. I thought about it a bit and finally realised that I had seen him before - I met him at a party back in December! This morning, I was telling my work colleague what had happened but I don't know which of the following I should say:

1. We were at hotel yesterday and a guy came in I suddenly recognized him because I'd seen him at party before.
2. We were at hotel yesterday and a guy came in I suddenly recognized him because I saw him at party before.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

@the batman learner Can you now see what we mean by context?

Oh I see and like you said context matters now I kind of get it.