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In fact I have reserved the book but as I had lost my password, I could not pay

Are the tenses used correctly I have a little doubt on past perfect had lost

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The answer is that it depends.

If you have subsequently recovered your passport, the PAST PERFECT fits. (You had lost it but you have since found it.)

If you have not yet recovered your passport, you could use the PRESENT PERFECT. (It is still lost.)

In practice, many native English speakers would also use the PAST TENSE. But either the PAST PERFECT or PRESENT PERFECT is a nicer choice, depending on the context.

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  • so i ve made the good choicebecause I have recovered it
    – Yves Lefol
    Mar 14, 2020 at 13:04
  • To clarify, the past perfect does not necessarily say you have recovered it (it doesn't say anything about the present one way or the other). It just says that at that previous point in time you had already lost it. The use of past perfect in the example sentence is perfectly fine in both cases. Also, "have reserved" implies that you still have it reserved even though you couldn't pay. Ordinarily, I would expect the use of past perfect for that verb as well, unless you're trying to make a point that the reservation is still active.
    – Foogod
    Mar 17, 2020 at 20:16

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