he has been informed vs he had been informed
Has and Had is still one serious Achiless heel of mine. :)

Do I understand it right, that 'he had been informed' is rather mentioned in a story about something that happened a while back (days, months, years), whereas 'he has been informed' is more appropriate if we speak about minutes or hours?
Or, is there an additional meaning to it that I still fail to understand?And it's Achilles heel, of course. Sorry about that. :)

Question

he has been informed vs he had been informed
Has and Had is still one serious Achiless heel of mine. :)

Do I understand it right, that 'he had been informed' is rather mentioned in a story about something that happened a while back (days, months, years), whereas 'he has been informed' is more appropriate if we speak about minutes or hours?
Or, is there an additional meaning to it that I still fail to understand?And it's Achilles heel, of course. Sorry about that. :)

Answer

It's pretty straightforward. :)

"Has been informed" refers to the situation now.

"Had been informed" refers to another (later) point in the past.

Answer

"Has been informed" is in the Present Perfect tense which is used to describe an action that happened at some unspecified time in the past (the exact time is not important).

"Had been informed" is in the Past Perfect which is used to describe an action that took place before another action in the past. It can show that something occurred before a specific action in the past.

Verpassen Sie nicht die Gelegenheit, bequem von zu Hause aus eine Sprache zu lernen. Stöbern Sie in unserer Auswahl an erfahrenen Sprachlehrern und melden Sie sich jetzt zu Ihrer ersten Unterrichtsstunde an!