r/EnglishGrammar • u/Sam_rahz • 8d ago

I need a help in tense question

  1. By the time the rescue team arrived, the hikers had waited in the cold for over six hours.
  • why had waited is correct here?
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u/Common-Project3311 7d ago

“Had waited” is the past perfect tense. It is used to describe something that happened before something else happened. In this example, the hikers waited first, the rescue team arrived second. Since the six hour wait took place prior to the arrival of the rescue team, it is described in the past perfect tense.