he had tried

I'm drawing a blank on the correct way to write this sentence:

Last time he had tried to feed them...
Last time he'd tried to feed them...
Last time he tried to feed them...

The final one I think is the easiest to say, but is this just an example of spoken language being tweaked to make it easier to say?

Many thanks!

 

All look correct to me. It'll depend on what diction feel right to you, what flows best with the prose before and after, and what is consistent with the rest of the work.

-Frank

 

These are past perfect tense.

This is simple past tense.
Whether you should use one or the other depends on the rest of the sentence (which you left out).

You'd only use past perfect if you have several chronological events in a past narrative. Like this:

"I had done my homework, so I decided to take a stroll."

 

Ten internet cookies for HorusEye because his explanation is very correct and very astute.

The trouble with common (or vulgar) English is that use of tense is very wishy washy and has a tendency to get collapsed into a simple tense use that requires massive auxiliary verbiage to explain it when there are, in fact, readily available syntax tools to express very subtle shades of meaning with a frugal use of words.

@ HorusEye

 

Ditto Wrey - nice post, Horus.

-Frank

 

Last time he tried to feed them... << I'd choose this normally if its not a flashback, theres no need for past perfect here.

Extra Tidbit:
Depending on the context, It is hard to tell from your sentence since it has (...)
Last time might be separated by a comma as it is a time & place tag.
e.g.
Last time, he tried to feed them...
Last time he tried to feed them, << Probably this one from how your sentence starts.
Next, he
As he crossed the bridge, he...

 

Thanks so much everyone, very useful indeed!

 

i coulda sworn i posted this yesterday, but it's not here now... so here goes again...

the only thing wrong with any of those three versions is the lack of a 'the' in front of 'last'!