Had met him before...

[subhajit123]

Which is correct, "Had met before" or "have met before", in the following context:

• Hey mom, today, I met a man named Sunil Das when coming from the market. He said he knew me and he said many things about me that were true. But I can't remember if I had met him/have met him before.

 

[GoesStation]

It's always incorrect to capitalize the word that follows a comma unless it's I or a proper noun. Don't do it.

 

[subhajit123]

It's always incorrect to capitalize the word that follows a comma unless it's I or a proper noun. Don't do it.

Could you please answer?

 

[GoesStation]

Could you please answer?

I used the time I would have devoted to answering the question to point out the capitalization error.

 

[kilroy65]

Also answered here.

 

[subhajit123]

Also answered here.

Yes I asked this on that site. The answerer said both tenses are correct? I could not understand the logic. How can be both the tenses correct there?

 

[subhajit123]

Did you read FumbleFingers's explanation?

Yes, I could not understand how can be both tenses be natural as I met the person some time ago.

 

[subhajit123]

Make up your mind.

I meant to say I met the person when I was coming to home. And I am telling this story to my Mom after returning. So some time passed. So isn't it correct to use past perfect As I am taking talking about the meting that happened some time ago?

 

[subhajit123]

This makes little sense. Your original post began "Hey mom, today, I met a man named Sunil Das ". Now you say "I am telling this story to my Mom after returning. So some time passed".

It's difficult to give a helpful response when you seem to be confused about the times you refer to.

Hey mom, today, I met a man named Sunil Das when coming from the market. He said he knew me and he said many things about me that were true. But I can't remember if I had met him/have met him before.

Hello teacher, I think I am unable to tell you the context correctly. That's why the problem arises. I am trying to explain further below.

Suppose today at 5 P.M I met the person when I was coming from the market. I reached my home at 6 P.M. Then I started telling the incident to my Mom.

- Hey Mom, today, I met a man named Sunil Das when coming from the market. He said he knew me and he said many things about me that were true. But I can't remember if I had met him/have met him before.

Now in that thread on that site, the answerer Fumblefingers said both tenses are correct. So my question is, how is it possible for both tenses to be correct as I am talking about meeting the person that happenned at 5 P.M.

 

[Rover_KE]

Also answered here.

And here.

 

[Raymott]

I agree with coiffe on the most recently-mentioned site. You can say, "I couldn't remember if I'd met him before (referring to your memory when you saw him), or "I can't remember if I've seen him before" (referring to when you were telling your mother).
You could also say "I can't remember if I'd seen him before".
There are several possible combinations of tense because there are three time periods which you are referring to - before seeing him this time (eg. when you might have seen him the first time), after seeing him this time, and while you're speaking to your mother.

Perhaps you should work through it with the people on wordReference.com first, since your progress there seems to be more advanced.

 

[Phaedrus]

And here.

And at the grammar site I moderate.