English Grammar

Question

You have to use the past perfect in the sentences.

Fred hadn't made many friends when he was at school. But by the end of the first week at university, he ____ (meet) lots of people with similar interests to him. At school he ____ (not see) eye to eye with most of his classmates.

I understand that the past perfect is used to express an event that takes place before another event, but the formulation of the question makes it sound like the past perfect must be used in all sentences, but in these ones i would just use the past simple, because there is only one event in each sentence. Am I wrong?

I would say "he met lots of people" instead of "he had met lots of people". Is that correct or not?

Answer 1

Hi Kara,

Your understanding of the meaning and usage of the past perfect tense is correct.

However, in order to use the past perfect tense in the example sentence correctly, you will need to write: "he had met lots of people" since placing 'had' before a verb in a sentence is the correct usage of the past perfect tense.

Answer 2

I think your hesitation comes from being a native English speaker. Most of us learned English informally, rather than starting with the "rules" and working outward from there. Although "he met lots of people" sounds right to our ears, I believe "he had met lots of people" is the correct answer in the rule-following construction of this sentence.