Hello, native speakers!

My name is Tang, and I am teaching English in a middle school in .

Embarrassingly, I don't know which of the following sentence is right:

A. We didn't disturb him until he had finished his job.

B. We hadn't disturbed him until he finished his job.

I guess A is right, but from "new concept English-book 2,"Lesson14, I found the
following sentence:

->I had not understood the problem until he explained it.

If I say” I did not understand this problem until he had explained it.”, would it be
wrong?

Really confused, please help me out.

19th August 2010

 anonymous


   answer

+1
A. We didn't disturb him until he had finished his job.-- OK

B. We hadn't disturbed him until he finished his job.-- No good unless a 3rd
past action follows: ' When dawn arrived, we still hadn't disturbed him until he
(had) finished the job.' Past perfect makes clear the time order of
an earlier event.

I had not understood the problem until he explained it.-- As with B above,
another past action is required.

If I say" I did not understand this problem until he had explained it.", would it be
wrong?-- This is fine.
19th August 2010
 

 Mister Micawber


 add a comment

COMMENTS  
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Remember : Use the Past Perfect Simple for the action that happened first and the
Past Simple for the action that happened second.

We didn't disturb him (2nd action) until he had finished his job (1st action) RIGHT
but B is wrong

I had not understood the problem (1st action) until he explained it (2nd action).
RIGHT

Hope I'm right.

Multiple Intelligences Theory