In below quote why past perfect tense has been used?
"If someone feels that they had never made a mistake in their life, then it means they had never tried a new thing in their life."
We use Past perfect tense to tell or imagine past of past. But in the above quote, which are the two past?
Also are these below sentence constructions are correct?
If I want to say some one about the past, can I say:
- I had called you.
If I want to say where I was when you called me:
- I had gone to wash room.
Or the simply simple past will do?
Please clarify
Best Answer
When talking about things in the past, the past perfect happens before the simple past.
In your example
had never made and had never tried are two actions which were started and ended in the past compared with how the person feels (present). The equivalent would be
where never made is nearer in time than had never tried since one would have had to try before failing.
could individually use the simple past
with similar meaning, however, using past perfect sets up a scenario for something in the more recent past
To answer where you were when they called:
means you were in the wash room (past perfect) when the person called
means you heard the phone ring then went (simple past) to the wash room