"we have finished" vs "we had finished"

Question

"we have finished" vs "we had finished"

Both phrases are correct, but they are used in different contexts. 'We have finished' is used to indicate that an action has been completed recently or in the present, while 'We had finished' is used to indicate that an action was completed in the past before another past action. The choice between them depends on the timeline of the events being described.

Last Updated: March 26, 2024

Use 'we have finished' to indicate that an action has been completed recently or in the present. It implies that the completion of the action has relevance to the current moment.

Examples:

We have finished our homework.
They have finished their meal.
She has finished her work for the day.

Alternatives:

We finished
We are done
We completed

Use 'we had finished' to indicate that an action was completed in the past before another past action. It is often used in past perfect tense to show the sequence of events.

Examples:

We had finished our meal when they arrived.
She had finished her presentation before the meeting started.
They had finished their work by the time we got there.

Alternatives:

We were done
We had completed
We had concluded

Answer 1

we have finished

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English to indicate that an action has been completed recently or in the present.

Answer 2

we had finished

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English to indicate that an action was completed in the past before another past action.

"we have finished" vs "we had finished"

we have finished

we had finished

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