"lived" or "had lived"?

[HighPriest]

Which sounds more natural (or/and correct)?
1. Where did you live before you came to London?
2. Where had you lived before you came to London?

 

[Allen165]

NOT A TEACHER.

The first sentence is correct and sounds more natural. I don't know if there are any circumstances under which the second sentence would be correct.

 

[Kintzacos]

Which sounds more natural (or/and correct)?
1. Where did you live before you came to London?
2. Where had you lived before you came to London?

Hi,

I think the first sentence sounds more natural , because the action that he did before coming to London is in the past. So I think you should use Past Simple.

I'm not so sure about my answer so you could correct it if I'm wrong.

 

[HighPriest]

Thanks, guys, my thoughts exactly

 

[cubezero3]

NOT A TEACHER.

The first sentence is correct and sounds more natural. I don't know if there are any circumstances under which the second sentence would be correct.

Hello, Jasmin165.

I remember the main function of the past perfect tense is to indicate an action happened before another past action. Here the question is about the listener's whereabouts before he or she came to london, which is a past action.

I guess people could use both. However, the first one might be preferable, since the use of before itself sufficiently indicates the relationship in time and therefore makes the use of had here clumzy and unnecessary.

I am very likely to be wrong. Please correct me if so.

Thanks

Richard

 

[bhaisahab]

Which sounds more natural (or/and correct)?
1. Where did you live before you came to London?
2. Where had you lived before you came to London?

Both are correct. The difference is that the first one uses the auxiliary "did" so the verb "to live" stays in the the bare infinitive.

 

[TheParser]

Which sounds more natural (or/and correct)?
1. Where did you live before you came to London?
2. Where had you lived before you came to London?

NOT A TEACHER

Maybe it depends on how long the person has been living in London.

If the person has been living in London for two weeks, I would feel

more comfortable asking: Where did you live before you came here?

If the person has been living in London for five years, I would be

more comfortable in saying something like:

I have been asked to write a short biographical note about you, so

I have to ask a few personal questions. Would you kindly tell me where

you had lived before you came to the capital?