had been removed vs were removed

Both phrases are correct, but they're used in different contexts. "Had been removed" is used when referring to an action that occurred before a specific point in the past. On the other hand, "were removed" is used to describe an action that took place in the past without specifying a particular time.

Explained by Miss E.
Editor at TextRanch

Last updated: October 24, 2024 • 12753 views

had been removed

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English when referring to an action that occurred before a specific point in the past.

Use "had been removed" when you want to indicate that something was taken out or eliminated before a particular time in the past.

Examples:

The old furniture had been removed from the room before the new tenants moved in.
By the time we arrived, the barriers had been removed from the road.
The graffiti had been removed from the walls by the time the event started.

Show examples from the web [+]

Whatever made the stain had been removed.
The drain cover had been removed, apparently.
The spark plug cable had been removed.
How the tumor had been removed.
Maybe because the top of the cranium had been removed.
The Greek authorities further argue in more detail that the bid submitted by CA in the third round of the tendering procedure, which the complainant claims was EUR 107 million, was excluded because the envelope had been removed from sight of the Tender Committee.
Höss had been removed as the original Commandant of Auschwitz the previous November, promoted to a job in Berlin.
After the blackout... you said one of the alters had been removed by this machine.
By e-mail of 23 September 2013 [7], Hungary informed the Commission that one plant had been removed from the TNP and confirmed the correct application of the aggregation rules set out in Article 29 of Directive 2010/75/EU to the remaining plants.
THE WHOLE TOP PART OFMY HEAD HAD BEEN REMOVED AND...
Now the mayor of the municipality of Wolkenstein has formally notified the environmental council of the autonomous province of Bozano-South Tyrol in a letter of 27 September 2007 that the hiking trail is unfit for hikers, since the steel cable had been removed.
The drain cover had been removed, apparently.
However, this company submitted evidence that these restrictions had been removed in March 2006.
They underlined that these restrictive provisions had been removed from these texts soon after the IP.
When the official report was published, all mention of blistering had been removed.
It is as if they had been removed.
Apparently Gloria's fingernail polish had been removed by the unsub.
- And then I added a layer to intimate that my eye had been removed or something horrifying like that.
The exact same as MichaelBaird. Two shots in the head and his data storage unit had been removed.
One report stated that 40.000 bodies had been removed from Lake Victoria.

Alternatives:

had removed
had taken out
had eliminated
had cleared
had disposed of

were removed

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English when describing an action that took place in the past without specifying a particular time.

Use "were removed" when you want to state that something was taken out or eliminated in the past without indicating a specific time frame.