Verb Tense

[punitkaur]

Manhattan SC says - If an action precedes an earlier past action, then use past perfect.

So, for the following example -

Yesterday, John walked to school in the morning and ran home in the evening.

Both of the above actions occurred in the past, and the action is morning precedes the action in evening.

So should we use past perfect instead of simple past?

Yesterday John had walked to school in the morning and ran home in the evening?? Or is the original sentence correct?

I m having trouble understanding when to use simple past and when to use past perfect.

[hitmewithgmat]

No, this one seems ok with just simple tense.
However, you need to use past perfect tense to describe a situation that A had happened first before B happened. (you use past perfect tense when you describe two actions. basically, what happened first? and then what happed later?)

In other words, one action occurred before another action in the past.

ex)The train had left when we arrived.
meaning th at the train left first. and then later wew arrived. (we have to wait for the next train

ex)When I woke up this morning, my roommate had already left.
ex)Before I arrived at the theater, the movie had already begun.

hope this helps.

[heshamelaziry]

In other words, the poster above says that use past perfect when tow actions happened in the past and ona has an effect on the other.

In the example in the question, both events do nnot affect one another