Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[jays]

Is "had changed" in the following sentence possible ?
----- the following -------------
After the ground coffee beans were in the bowling water, they had changed the water.

[CP]

No, because the sequence of events is (1) beans in water, (2) change the water, not the other way around.

You could say, "After the beans had been in the boiling water for 10 minutes, they changed the water." Because beans in water is earlier in time, it uses the past perfect tense, while change the water needs only the simple past.

If it is the other way around, "They put the beans in the pot after they had changed the water."
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