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I was overwhelmed with joy when i read the texts you had sent me.

I was overwhelmed with joy when i read the texts you sent me.

Are both the above sentences grammatically correct? What's the difference in their meaning?

lekon chekon
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  • A great resource about perfect: http://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/13255/canonical-post-2-what-is-the-perfect-and-how-should-i-use-it – shin Dec 30 '15 at 07:35
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    The second one shows a chain of actions that happened right one after another. When the meaning is clear, you don't need past perfect. – Schwale Dec 30 '15 at 12:20
  • This might be useful: http://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/5461/when-is-using-the-past-perfect-tense-not-necessary – Vlammuh Oct 25 '16 at 21:05

1 Answers1

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Both sentences mean the same thing, that someone sent you texts which made you happy.

Using had sent (past perfect), shows that the sender finished sending before the next action: that you were overwhelmed. However, in this case, there is no ambiguity in the order of actions since you could only become overwhelmed after the texts were sent.

For my experience, the second sentence is used more, the first sounds too learned.

Peter
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