Ahmed M.

asked • 01/03/16

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Choose and would you mind telling me the reason.
As soon as I got to the station, I realised that I ....... my train
( had missed - have missed)
 
Thans in advance

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Diana P. answered • 01/04/16

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Ahmed,
 
The correct answer is "had missed." This is known as past perfect and it represents the idea that something happened ("I got to the train station") before some other situation occurred in the past ("I realized I had missed my train"). 
 
In order for "have missed" to be correct, the sentence would need to be something like, "I have missed my train often" or "I have missed my train again!" This is the present perfect and it represents something that happened in the past at some unspecified time. 
 
 
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Ed M.

I'd like to add to Diana P.'s sufficient and excellent explanation only that information in another clause, like the time clause As soon as I got to the station in your question, could also influence the choice between the present perfect or the past perfect in the main clause (or actually in this case the embedded clause that I have/had missed my train). As Dr. Diana mentioned, the present perfect is often used to refer to an action occurring in the past where the specific time of the action is not known or not important (cf. the use of the definite simple past in I got to the station at 2 o'clock), but the present perfect also is common where there is a sense that a past action or state continues to have some influence on the present. For example, in a sentence like I feel so bad because now I've missed my train which I might utter a few minutes after arriving late to the station and watching the train chugging off into the distance, notice that I used the present perfect 've missed instead of the simple past missed even though the missing the train actually occurred the instant that the train started to pull out of the station without me on board (i.e., the train left at precisely 1:59 p.m.) because the fact of my missing the train is still influencing my state of mind "now," that is, "I feel so bad."
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01/04/16

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