Today was the first time I saw/I had seen

[Winwin2011]

Are the following sentences both correct?

Today was the first time I saw a 22 Degree Halo, Rainbow around the sun.

Today was the first time I had seen a 22 Degree Halo, Rainbow around the sun.

Thanks.

 

[mayita1usa]

a) Today was the first time I saw a 22 Degree Halo, Rainbow around the sun.
b) Today was the first time I had seen a 22 Degree Halo, Rainbow around the sun.

Yes; as with most verb questions, it depends on your intended meaning:

a) the simple past emphasizes the completed action;
b) the past perfect gives the sense that you're telling a story about a completed action, but that action is still relevant, either emotionally or because you are going to continue talking about it.​

If you want to give the action even more current relevance (say, if you're still really excited about it), you could use the present perfect:

c) Today was the first time I have seen a 22 Degree Halo, Rainbow around the sun.


​

One other comment, not related to your question: Are you sure you are using capitalization and the comma correctly in these sentences? I'm not familiar with whatever scientific terminology is used here, but if I were to write the sentence myself, I would write it this way:

Today was the first time I've (ever) seen a 22-degree halo rainbow around the sun!​

 

[Barb_D]

I can't make the "had seen" work at all.

I quite agree that "22-degree halo rainbow" is much better.

 

[mayita1usa]

I can't make the "had seen" work at all.

The only way I can make it work is if it is part of a longer story in which seeing the rainbow happened in the past before something else in the past... I guess I should have explained that better! (Or maybe I still haven't explained it well....)

 

[Winwin2011]

I googled “It was the first time + past prefect. I read the following:
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“In last night's final Mark peters defeated Ed Myers in 3 sets. "It was the first time" in six attempts that peters has beaten the world champion.”

The thread was answered by a native speaker as follows:

The correct sequence is:

This is the first time that he has beaten...
That/This was the first time that he had beaten...

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Is it correct to use “past perfect” in the above context?

Are the following sentences natural?

1. I was in Japan last Christmas. It was my first time I saw snowing.
2. I was in Japan last Christmas. It was my first time I had seen snowing.