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Please consider the following four sentences.

1 - He finished school

2 - He has finished school

3 - He had finished school

4 - He did finish school

Do all of these sentences mean the same or not? If there are any differences, could you explain?

I'm not asking which one is more appropriate to express that someone completed his last school year. Instead, I'm just using these sentences as examples in order to understand the correct usage of each past tense form in English. Thank you.

Edit: Not a duplicate. My question considers specific past tense forms, while the suggested question deals with other unrelated tenses and aspects.

EgaVS
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  • Welcome to EL&U. No, the four sentences do not mean the exact same thing. The first three refer to different points in time, and the question that Janus linked indicates what relationship they have to one another in terms of reference time. The fourth is an emphatic form of the first. It's not clear to me what further information you are looking for. – choster Nov 30 '16 at 21:15
  • @EgaVS What is your own language? Surely it must have verb tenses doesn't it? – WS2 Nov 30 '16 at 23:17
  • It's Portuguese. Yes, we have equivalent verb tenses. – EgaVS Dec 02 '16 at 20:30

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