Mary arrived before Tom had left.

[sitifan]

Mary ____________ before Tom ____________.
(A) had arrived; left
(B) arrive; had left
(C) arrived; had left
(D) had arrived; leave
Source: written by a Taiwanese teacher of English.

The answer is option A.
Is option C possible?

 

[Tarheel]

Option A is the answer only because option E (arrived, left) isn't available.

No

 

[sitifan]

We can use before with past simple OR past perfect to talk about an action that happened before something else.

• We arrived just before the plane doors closed.
• Luckily, we arrived before the plane doors had closed.

Source: https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/grammar/online-grammar/past-perfect-simple-with-time-expressions#:~:text=We can use before with,the plane doors had closed.

Do native speakers agree with the above quotation?

 

[5jj]

I do.

 

[sitifan]

I do.

1. Luckily, we arrived before the plane doors had closed.
2. Mary arrived before Tom had left.

What's wrong with #2?

 

[5jj]

Nothing.

 

[SoothingDave]

I don't have a problem with either A or C.

 

[5jj]

@sitifan - Did you not read my post #6?

(Crossposted with SD)

 

[sitifan]

1. Mary arrived before Tom left. (acceptable to all)
2. Mary had arrived before Tom left. (acceptable to Tarheel)
3. Mary arrived before Tom had left. (acceptable to 5jj and SoothingDave, but not acceptable to Tarheel)
4. Mary had arrived before Tom had left.
All the above sentences are acceptable to me.

 

[Tarheel]

I'm a little uncomfortable with the word "acceptable". Different people have different backgrounds and are used to different patterns in language usage. Furthermore, if you know one thing that works why would you keep looking?

If past tense is your default choice why would you decide arbitrarily that you want to use past perfect? (There are only 24 hours in a day.)

 

[tedmc]

We use the past perfect to distinguish an earlier action from an action stated. Mary arrived before Tom left. So Tom could not "had left" before Mary.
Like Tarheel, I think only A fits.

 

[sitifan]

1. Before I had a chance to thank him, he’d gone.
2. Before he had finished his training, he was sacked.

In the first sentence the past perfect tense has been used for the earlier action and in the second sentence the past simple tense has been used for the earlier action.

 

[Tarheel]

I guess English can be confusing if you think in terms of rules.

1. He had already left before she had a chance to thank him. (She didn't get a chance to thank him.)

2. He hadn't completed his training when he was sacked (fired). (He was sacked (fired) before he finished his training.)

 

[5jj]

We use the past perfect to distinguish an earlier action from an action stated. Mary arrived before Tom left. So Tom could not "had left" before Mary.
Like Tarheel, I think only A fits.

When Mary arrived, Tom had not left.

It is the not-leaving that is the earlier situation. The perfect aspect is used because the earlier past has relevance to the later past when Mary arrived - he was still there.