Reiko's Guestbook question of August 1, 2001 about the past perfect tense:

What we fear most in life never happens, or never happens exactly as we had dreaded.

I wonder why ' had dreaded' (past perfect) is used in this sentence.

This question is asked by my friend by E-mail. So, I don't know the context.

As you know, one use of the past perfect is to express the idea that one thing happened before some other thing happened (or that some state existed before some other state existed). In your friend's example, the first state is our existing dread. That dread can be put into the past perfect after something we dread has happened. In other words, if we dread something and we finally encounter it, we can say that we had dreaded it.

Example

Today I say: "I dread tomorrow's meeting. I'm sure it will be very long and boring."

Next week I say: "The meeting was very long and boring, just as I had dreaded."

　

The reason your friend's example sentence might be a little confusing is that the first past event has not been clearly stated (though it is understood). A longer (but less eloquent!) version of this sentence might be:

What we fear most in life never happens, or, when something we fear does happen, never happens exactly as we had dreaded.

"When something we fear does happen " means that something has happened, so I think this qualifies as the first past event. The condition that existed before that event (the person's fear) can be considered the past of the past, which is the past perfect.

The reason we use the past perfect is clarity: By using the past perfect in this sentence, the writer is very clearly showing that a fear about something existed before the unfortunate event actually happened.

For a little more about the past perfect, please check out this page.