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[puzzle]

Dear teachers,
Can you tell me which is the right answer to the folowing exercise and why?

It was the seventh glass of beer he ____ that night.
A. drank B. had drunk

Thank you very much!

[IanT]

Good question!

I'd say that both answers can be correct, depending on the context.

"Had drunk", the past perfect, would normally be used to show that the drinking happened before another past action. There isn't another past action in the sentence, so the technical answer might be that you should use "drank" the past simple.

However, in normal conversation, we know that after seven glasses of beer something else will happen in the story! So "had drunk" sounds very natural to prepare us for the past action that comes next.

Plus, he had drunk, already, the other six beers!

So, people may argue that "drank" is more correct, but "had drunk" sounds much more natural, to me.

Hope it helps,
Ian
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