Use the Past Simple for past events in the order they happened: I arrived and she left. Use the Past Perfect to go back to an earlier past: When I arrived, she had left. (She left first.)
Same situation, two choices. Pick an example.
When I got to the platform, the train left.
Events at the story's main time, told in order.
When I got to the platform, the train had left.
One step further back: something already done before the past moment you're talking about.
| Rule | Past Simple | Past Perfect |
|---|---|---|
| Form | I left · Did you leave? | I had left · Had you left? |
| Focus | The main past events, in order | An earlier past, before another past moment |
| Signal words | when, then, yesterday, ago | already, by the time, before, never … before |
| When to use | The default for the past | Only when the order needs to be clear |
When we got to the cinema, the film _____. We missed the start.
Paste an email or an essay. Clarigram marks the mistakes you actually make, shows the rule behind each one as a picture, and builds your practice from them.
No. When before, after or the order of the sentence makes the sequence clear, the Past Simple is fine: After she ate, she went for a walk.
Yes. It's the Past Perfect of have: I had had breakfast, so I wasn't hungry.