Making an appropriate sentence with the word "fingerpri

[Helped Wanted]

Is it right to write:


The robbers' fingerprints were found everywhere in the shop. It was the fingerprints that had helped the police find the robbers.

Any problem with the sentence above? Please advise and help correct it if there's any mistakes, many thanks again for helping! T_T

 

[RonBee]

That is fine except that you don't need had in the second sentence. Use simple past.

 

[CitySpeak]

That is fine except that you don't need had in the second sentence. Use simple past.

The past perfect is not needed, but neither is it necessarily wrong. Whether or not the speaker would use the past perfect in a sentence such as that has much to do with what was spoken before and the context.

 

[RonBee]

 

[CitySpeak]

That is fine except that you don't need had in the second sentence. Use simple past.

The past perfect is not needed, but neither is it necessarily wrong. Whether or not the speaker would use the past perfect in a sentence such as that has much to do with what was spoken before and the context.

What was spoken before and the context could very well add up to the speaker's subjective point of view. It is the speaker's subjective point of view that often determines what is correct and incorrect.

To really understand which verb forms are chosen and why they are chosen a context is needed. Viewing sentences in isolation does not always work well for the purpose of determining what is correct and incorrect.

 

[Tdol]

While I agree with CitySpeak's comments about context, I would say that, from what we have here, there is no call for the use of the past perfect. ;-)