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The Past Perfect expresses the idea that something occurred before another action in the past.

For examples: 1) He had seen such a beautiful place before he went to India.

2) He had never seen such a beautiful place before he went to India.

In (1) past perfect takes place 1st before past simple. I have a doubt in (2), because of the adverb "never" the action not takes place so which takes place 1st either past perfect or past simple? please could you clarify my doubt?

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2 Answers 2

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I know your question is about tense and adverbs, but there is something glaringly wrong with your first example so I'm wondering if perhaps you have just got a bit confused. Let's simplify things a little.

2) He had never seen such a beautiful place before he went to India.

This makes sense. I'm guessing that this is the example you started with. It means that no place "he" had ever seen before he went to India was as beautiful as India.

1) He had seen such a beautiful place before he went to India.

This sentence doesn't scan. It looks like an attempt to reverse the second example but it makes no sense. The expression "such a beautiful place" no longer identifies any place. "Such" is a predeterminer, but it does not determine anything in this context!

The adverb "never" by itself does not have any effect on the tense. It is the verb "had" that determines this. "Never" can also be used in the future perfect tense, for example:

He never will see such a beautiful place as India.

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Your example (2) is simply the opposite of example (1).

The never in example (2) means that he the past-perfect action (seeing such a beautiful place) did not occur before the past-simple action (going to India). If may -- or may not -- have happened during or after going to India.

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  • 1. "He never saw such a beautiful place before he went to India." Is this sentence correct? 2. "Wow! What a movie! I had never seen such a movie " means Now I have seen it right? 3. "I have never seen such a place before I go to India." Is this grammatically correct sentence?
    – Nandy
    Sep 20, 2017 at 9:29
  • 1. Correct. 2. No. The "Wow! What a movie!”part might imply that I’ve seen the movie but what if I said “I had never seen such a movie so I couldn’t comment on it.” It doesn’t mean that I have now seen the movie. 3. No. I’m not sure what you’re trying to say here. Maybe: “I will never see such a place before I go to India.”
    – smatterer
    Sep 20, 2017 at 11:36
  • Sorry for disturbing you unnecessarily but I need clarity of using these sentences with past perfect. "I saw a movie before I came here that I had never seen." vs " I had never seen such a movie before I came here". are these have same meaning?
    – Nandy
    Sep 22, 2017 at 3:45
  • @nanu1: No. They are almost the oppossite of each other. In the first sentence, you did see a movie and in the second sentence you did not see a movie.
    – smatterer
    Sep 22, 2017 at 6:12
  • 1."I saw a movie before I came here that I had never seen." 2. " I had never seen such a movie before I came here". Are these sentences are grammatically and syntactically correct?
    – Nandy
    Sep 22, 2017 at 7:03

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