Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[syoshioka99]

1. A lot of schools were closed because it had snowed heavily on the previous night.

2. A lot of schools were closed because it snowed heavily last night.

(Question) Do #1&#2 have the same meaning?

Satoru

Japan

[Anuradha Chepur]

Yes. In most situations, the past perfect can optionally be replaced by the simple past. The perfect forms are used moslty in British English.

[syoshioka99]

I appreciate it very much

[asterix]

[Anuradha Chepur]

The topic for this post is the difference between snowed/had snowed.

Past perfect can be optionally replaced by the simple past and AmE doesn't encourage the perfect forms. My answer to this post focussed on this aspect.

The two sentences definitely do not mean the same thing, and this is because of the different time expressions: 'previous night' and 'last night', and not because of 'had snowed' and 'snowed'.

[asterix]

In fact, Anuradha, he/she asked if they had the same meaning.
They do not.

[Anuradha Chepur]

Infact, I do not dispute it Asterix, and I have already acknowledged that I got carried away by the topic of the post and focussed only on the difference between past perfect and simple past. It was an oversight and I did not notice the different time expressions in the two sentences.

[Anuradha Chepur]

Previous post continuation....

And also I thank Asterix for bringing it to my notice

[asterix]

You're welcome Anuradha... I bet you don't get much snow in Hyderabad.

[Anuradha Chepur]

Unfortunately we don't have any snow in Hyderabad. But I wish we did.