I am trying to figure out the correct use of perfect (past perfect) tenses:
- It took a year until she got over it.
- It took a year until she had got/gotten over it.
Are both correct?
If so, I think the latter means that it took a year until it was all gone and she was fine again (I mean that event is closed already), while the former is more "immediate"?
Best Answer
In an isolated sentence, there is no difference between the simple and the perfect tenses. In a sequence of sentences, though, the simple tenses (especially the past) generally create the impression of sequence. "I went down the hall. I found the note. I burst into tears." We assume that those things happened in that order. A perfect tense allows you to make a side statement about a different time. "I went down the hall. I found the note. She had told me she was unhappy, but I hadn't listened. I burst into tears." The past perfect lets me refer to an event in the more remote past without changing the expected time of the next sentence.
In your examples, I agree that better would be "It took a year for her to get over it" and "it had taken a year for her to get over it." In the case of the first one, the reader expects to hear what happened immediately after she got over it. In the case of the second one, the reader expects the narrative to resume from whatever sentence came before that one.
Hope that helps.