Past vs Past Perfect

Question

I am attempting to translate the phrase "I often think about how he got there."

The two possible sentences I have constructed are:

1. A menudo pienso en cómo él llegó allí.
2. A menudo pienso en cómo él había llegado allí.

Which one is more gramatically correct?

Answer 1

In Spanish you usually only use the past perfect to describe something that happened before something else in the past.

Answer 2

In terms of preterite v past perfect, this is exactly the same as in English.

Would you say

I often think about how he got there?

or

I often think about how he had gotten there?

Both could be correct. It depends on context. But if that's all you are saying, just that thought, the preterite construction seems preferable.

Hi Jeremias. In England we would never use..."I often think about how he had gotten there" - billygoat, Nov 7, 2011

In the US we would ;) - lorenzo9, Nov 7, 2011