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I heard a voice mail message in the evening. What should I say: "You had left a message for me" or "you left a message for me"?

MrHen
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roopa
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    May I suggest ell.stackexchange.com ? That may better fit the level of your question – virmaior Feb 24 '14 at 05:04
  • Relevant: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/140096/i-left-before-they-had-decided-what-to-do-why-is-decided-in-the-past-perfect – MrHen Mar 05 '14 at 21:30

1 Answers1

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Based on what I was taught in English Speaking Course, we use "had" if the context is not in recent past.

For example: You received a voice mail in the evening, if you say this sentence after some time, then you can say "You left a message" but if you are saying this sentence the next day, then you would say "You had left a message"

Example 2: If you watch any movie recently, you would say "I watched this movie", if you had watched a earlier and you are talking about it now, then u would say" I had watched this movie"

user2798227
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