[Grammar] I had waited until the rain stopped

[Sureuser86]

Hello.
Can you say if all these sentences are possible, please?
What's the difference between them?

1) I had waited until the rain stopped.
I think, the Past Perfect is unnecessary, but is it acceptable?

2) I waited until the rain had stopped.
I think, here we emphasize the completion of waiting.

3) I had waited for 2 hours until the rain stopped.
I think the Past Perfect is optional here.

4) Villagers had stayed indoors until the soldiers left.
5) Villagers stayed indoors until the soliders had left.
6) Villagers had stayed indoors for 2 hours until the soliders had left.
I would apply the same comments to 4-6.

What do you think?

 

[SlickVic9000]

(Not a Teacher)

They're all possible. That said, you could use straight past tense with all of those sentences as well. Past perfect tense is typically used to emphasize that an action in the past occurred before another action in the past, therefore, it's usually followed by the past tense.
For #3 and #6, I would use 'when' instead of 'until'.

 

[Sureuser86]

Thank you!
Any other comments?

 

[5jj]

Any other comments?

There is no need. SlickVic has given a good response.

ps. Typo: [STRIKE]soliders[/STRIKE] soldiers.