Hi everyone
I was looking through an ACT practice paper and this question came up
Passage: Last spring, I HAD BEEN fortunate to be chosen to participate in an exchange study program.
Look at the capitalised portion:
Question: (A) no change
(B) will be
© was
(D) have been
initially thought the answer was A, no change, only to find out later it was C!
how do you know when to use had been and was?
so confused!
Had/has/have been is usually used for something that was done in the past and still applies (multiple events).
Was/were usually applies to something done in the past that no longer applies (single event).
Example:
The well had been producing clean water.
The well was producing clean water.
The first sentence implies that the well still is producing water, but it’s no longer clean for some reason.
The second sentence implies that the well is no longer producing water.
Read the following or previous sentences in the paragraph. That question is most likely a parallelism question. If the paragraph is mostly in past prefect (had been for example) then the answer would be A, but if the paragraph is in the past tense (was for example) then C would be the answer.
@HereToHelpYou
perfect explanation, thanks!
@TheIG19 thanks!
had been is past perfect and implies order in the the past was is simple past means it one and done has no effect in the order of the past