Past - past perfect

Question

In what way do I represent the task which I did yesterday night? I want to know the usage differences between "Past" and "Past perfect" tenses Can anyone give me idea to clarify this?

Last night, unexpectedly, I met my college mate in a shopping mall. Then, I reached my hostel and had dinner. After that, I read a novel. It was very interesting. Then, I called my schoolmates and spoke with them. At 11'o' clock I went to bed

If someone ask you what you did last night, what would you say? — Matt E. Эллен, Sep 12 '13 at 07:54
"Last night,Unexpected,I met my college mate in a shopping mall.Then,I reached my hostel and had dinner.After that,I read a novel.It was very interesting.Then,I called my schoolmates and spoke with them.At 11'o' clock I went to bed" — KaviSuja, Sep 12 '13 at 08:44
That sound fine to me. Can you see what tense you are using? — Matt E. Эллен, Sep 12 '13 at 08:45
Here I'm using only past tense. But,when I'm practicing I confused where we use "had been" or "had" ? — KaviSuja, Sep 12 '13 at 09:18
Have a look at this diagram, it should answer your question. — Matt E. Эллен, Sep 12 '13 at 09:21
Hi Kavitha, I do not know what your native language is, but in most western languages, there is a space after punctuation. Please see the corrections I have made to your text to see what I mean — mplungjan, Sep 12 '13 at 09:30

score 0 · Answer 1 · answered Sep 12 '13 at 07:55

As you say in the question, you did it last night, which tells you the tense.

There no firm rule relating tense to how long ago an event was, as in this conversation:

"Have you done all your homework?"

"Yes, I have."

"When did you do it?"

"I finished it a week ago/last night/this morning/a minute ago."

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 12 '13 at 08:15

The past tense is used to describe an action or an event which took place at a specific time in the past, and which has been completed at the time of speaking. You would therefore use it to refer to last night’s task. The past perfect would not normally be used in this context, but the present perfect might be used if performance of the task was relevant at the time of speaking.

Past - past perfect

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