The past simple and past perfect tenses - Learners’ Questions

Niki from Hungary wants to know when to use ’eat’ and ’ate’. Dan has the answer. For more videos and content that will help you learn English, visit our website: Transcript Hi guys! Dan here for BBC Learning English with this week’s Learner Question. Find out what it is after this. OK! This week’s learner question comes from Niki from Hungary, who writes: The following sentence has been giving me a headache for weeks now. Could you please give me the correct answer and justify it? When was the last time you had eaten / ate in this restaurant? Two weeks ago. Ok, Niki, are you ready? Here we go. So, in your example it has to be the past simple. When was the last time you ate in this restaurant? Two weeks ago. Now the past simple refers to finished periods of time or moments of time. It refers to a definite past. So, it’s often used with time adverbials such as: last night, some time ago, in 1985, earlier today, at six o clock this morning, the last time, the first time,