In general, most speakers choose not to use the past perfect unless it is absolutely necessary, as JulianStuart says in post #7. Also, some native speakers are uncertain about what is "correct" English, and this sometimes leads to grammatical errors through applying a particular rule in the wrong situation. However, while this use of the past perfect crops up all the time, it is relatively unusual for it to be immediately followed by a when-clause.īeyond that, there is the usual variation between different speakers found with many English uses. This use is as close to universal among native speakers as anything is in English (English is full of exceptions). In this situation, the past perfect is used to move the time of the action backwards. There is one very clear situation where you would use the past perfect in "I had been riding my bike when I saw my friend Paul", and that is if the previous sentence was set at some later point in time. ![]() It always* (but see footnote) requires a time reference in the past, and it always refers to something happening before that time (both of these conditions are met in "I had been riding my bike when I saw my friend Paul"), but beyond this, its usage can be harder to pin down. ![]() The past perfect is something of a problematical tense.
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