Past perfect in one exercise.....why?

[Dominik92]

Hello all.

My teacher doesn't know why there is past perfect in the last sentence (hadn't discussed). She says that the context (the whole "interview") doesn't provide the reason for using it as "was hoping" doesn't play any role in it.

I am writing from my mobile phone so I am hoping you can see the included picture. Would it be possible to explain the use of past perfect here please?

Thank you.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

The "we hadn't discussed" line?

This makes it clear that there was no discussion BEFORE you made your plans. Then she informed you that she planned to come to you, so the plans you HAD made were not necessary.

Does that help?

 

[Dominik92]

Thank you.

That´s probably it! In the text there isn´t something like past tense "made" around the "we hadn´t discussed" part. So I assume sometimes it is not necessary to have a past simple tense in the text when I want to use past perfect.

 

[Dominik92]

'Oh well, I was hoping to visit my friend for a couple of weeks in Crete but we hadn't discussed (didn´t discuss it/never discussed it) it so she's just told me she's coming back'.​



I was about to start a new thread for this but because this is such a short one ( and my additional question is topical as well) I will post it here.


Would it be possible to use past simple instead of the past perfect in the sentence above? What would it mean? Please could you tell me? Thanks.
​

 

[Dominik92]

Ok. Please could I use the past simple in the same sentence/context?

 

[Dominik92]

Would it be grammatically correct in that context? If yes, what would emphasize the past simple unlike the past perfect?