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  • They had cooperated closely in the planning of the project.

  • They cooperated closely in the planning of the project.

As I know, we usually use had when we want to specify that one event happened before the other. According to the first sentence what a change that had made to it?

Mohd Zulkanien Sarbini
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Bavyan Yaldo
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  • I already know that, and that is what I am asking about. Because the first sentence mentioned in the oxford dictionary, and I want to know why is had mentioned? at the time he did not add other event. – Bavyan Yaldo Jun 23 '17 at 14:31
  • @BavyanYaldo The problem is that it's half the context. As you guess you would not use "had" except to imply relationship to some other condition or event -- which doesn't have to be explicitly stated, but should be something the listener would know. – Andrew Jun 23 '17 at 14:33
  • There is no difference in meaning between the two, only a difference in time perspective. We can't know from the context (we have none!) why (or whether) the speaker needs to place the completed action in the past. Understanding and using the perfect in English is something that takes practice for a new speaker of the language. A good basic rule (we call it FumbleFingers' Perfect Truism) is "Don't use Past Perfect unless you really have to". – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica Jun 23 '17 at 19:16

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