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Which of these is correct?

  1. Before he had come to the factory, Tom was studying at the University of London.
  2. Before he came to the factory, Tom had studied at the University of London.
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You might want to check out ell.stackexchange.com which might be a better fit for such questions. – coleopterist Mar 10 at 14:43
I have no answer on that site.Is it difficult to answer my question? – mitya Mar 10 at 14:46
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Welcome to ELL, mitya. Can you provide the ELL question link? What does "I have no answer on that site" mean? – Carlo_R. Mar 10 at 14:51
Right, Carlo, I was going to ask something similar, as I couldn't find the original question on ELL, even though there are two very recent questions by someone called Upgrate who shares his avatar with mitya... – Paola Mar 10 at 14:58

closed as off topic by tchrist, Kris, cornbread ninja 麵包忍者, Kristina Lopez, MετάEd Mar 12 at 5:23

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1 Answer

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To my mind, both the sentences have different meanings. The second sentence is correct because the activity of studying was complete, and hence the past perfect tense. The first sentence leaves the meaning of the activity incomplete. We cannot use past perfect for the activity which takes after something has already come to an end.

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