Which is more correct? First one or second one?(please, native english speakers only) 1. When the revolution began there was a lack of wood and some clever guys stumbled upon the use of coal. 2. When the revolution had begun there was a lack of wood and..
by 
Sergey Yurkov
ANSWERS: 11
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2.
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I think the first one flows easier.
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It's definitely #1: When the revolution began, there was a lack of wood, and some clever guys stumbled upon the use of coal.
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Wouldn't it be the second, since the Revolution happened years ago? Had begun meaning past tense. As much as the first one flows easier, proper English, I feel, would be the second one.
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Sentence 1 sound better than sentence 2.
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If you go for the second change the word when to once. My feeling on this is that the second (once the revolution had begun there was a lack of wood) makes it sound like the beginning of the revolution directly impacted on the stocks of wood, where the other (when the revolution began there was a lack of wood) makes it sound like the two things are happening simultaneously but not necessarily linked. I'd probably go for the first, unless you changed the meaning to them discovering there was no wood once the revolution had begun
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I would think the first is correct (although i might say "When the revolution FIRST began".) The second seems to imply that the lack of wood etc. happened some time after the revolution HAD BEGUN, whereas the true meaning that you are seeking is probably the lack of wood etc. AT THE TIME the revolution first began.
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I would say one.
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When the revolution began, there was a lack of wood; a few clever men stumbled upon the use of coal.
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Either works. However, if I were writing the sentence, I would use the second version.
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They are both correct; which one you use would depend on the context. The second one implies a feeling of delay; that something prevented the revolution from starting immediately; that it was something that began in a piecemeal way. In fact the second sentence would be made clearer if the first word was 'Once'.
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