<p>So guys, there's this thing in writing that i can't understand at all ! 'tis driving me crazy. I gonna put some examples below, i'd appreciate if you could give me some help.</p>
<p>example 01: After a 1991 attempt to overthrow Mikhail Gorbachev failed, power shifted to Russian president Boris Yeltsin.</p>
<p>example 02: By the time it adjourned, the committee had made several important decisions</p>
<p>by god's name, why do we dont use the past participle in the first one ? There's no need to say that the attempt to overthrow Gorbatchev happened BEFORE the power shifted to Yeltsin ? And i've seen A LOT of questions like this. I mean, i know that for actions that happened in the past and are over, we should use simple past, but hey, in example 02 the actions happened in the past and are over. </p>
<p>When the heck do we use past participle vs simple past ?</p>
<p>Thanks a lot.</p>
<p>When there is an old date, ALWAYS use simple past.Why? I seriously don’t know.</p>
<p>When you use By the time, It should ALWAYS be followed by past particle.Why? Again, idk.</p>
<p>How did I know?</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.thecriticalreader.com/general-grammar-tips/sat-grammar/item/264-complete-sat-grammar-rules.html”>http://www.thecriticalreader.com/general-grammar-tips/sat-grammar/item/264-complete-sat-grammar-rules.html</a></p>
<p>The author who wrote this is acclaimed to be the best in SAT grammar prep.(I am not trying to advertise anything)</p>
<p>By the way, the “by the time” phrase was included in my exam.It was followed by a simple past,which is wrong.</p>
<p>My take: English pluperfect denotes a time period even further before the simple past. In the second sentence, pluperfect “had ____” is used because the committee made the important decisions before it adjourned which is showed by “by the time”. It’s implied that the important decisions were already made.</p>
<p>thank you, guys. i really appreciate it ! </p>