What is the best way to say the sentence:
I tried to recollect some grammar rules that I had learned before.
or I should say:
I tried to recollect some grammar rules that I learned before?
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Sign up to join this communityWhat is the best way to say the sentence:
I tried to recollect some grammar rules that I had learned before.
or I should say:
I tried to recollect some grammar rules that I learned before?
IMHO, there's no difference in meaning, so it doesn't matter which you choose. Colloquially, I'd probably use “remember” instead of “recollect” and contract “I had” to “I'd”, but apart from that, either of them are perfectly acceptable.
The tenses of past and past perfect always confuses people. And I was/(am?) one of them. But after reading a few books, it's getting a bit clearer.
As far as conveying the message is concerned, they don't make major difference. Both means the same that you tried to recollect grammar rules that once you learned from somewhere.
Now the subtlety -
We use past perfect that further goes back in the past what we call early past. It just gives the flair of something that happened a little long back than the past. Check out the illustration I used here.
So, in your case, if you use ...had learned, it'll be a bit more past (early past) as compared to learned which'll give a little flair of something happened recently (though past). What's a bit tricky here is before which may mean recent past or early past both.
It is easier to understand the past perfect tense if you think of it as an earlier past tense. Earlier past events or situations are indicated by the past perfect tense. The past simple tense and the past perfect tense are often used in the same sentence. Example:
"Several senior employees had left the company by the time the new manager arrived."
Past perfect tense: is used to describe an action of more earlier time than simple past
Simple past is used to talk about an action If we think of it as recently happened(though past).
I tried to recollect some grammar rules that I had learned before.
( You are stressing that you had learned them a long ago/more earlier)
I tried to recollect some grammar rules that I learned before?
(you are stressing that you learned them recently though in past)
I hope it helps!