Past Perfect Tense The past perfect tense is quite an easy tense to understand and to use.

This tense talks about the "past in the past". How do we make the Past Perfect Tense? The structure of the past perfect tense is: subject + auxiliary verb HAVE conjugated in simple past tense had + main verb past participle V3

For negative sentences in the past perfect tense, we insert not between the auxiliary verb and main verb. For question sentences, we exchange the subject and auxiliary verb. Look at these example sentences with the past perfect tense: subject + + ? ? I You She We Had Had auxiliary verb had had had had you they not not main verb finished stopped gone left. arrived? eaten dinner? my work. before me. to school.

How do we use the Past Perfect Tense? The past perfect tense expresses action in the past before another action in the past. This is the past in the past. For example: The train left at 9am. We arrived at 9.15am. When we arrived, the train had left.

Look at some more examples: I wasn't hungry. I had just eaten. They were hungry. They had not eaten for five hours. I didn't know who he was. I had never seen him before. "Mary wasn't at home when I arrived." "Really? Where had she gone?"

For example, imagine that you arrive at the station at 9.15am. The stationmaster says to you: "You are too late. The train has left."

Later, you tell your friends:

"We were too late. The train had left."

We often use the past perfect tense in reported speech after verbs like said, told, asked, thought, wondered: Look at these examples: He told us that the train had left. I thought I had met her before, but I was wrong. He explained that he had closed the window because of the rain. I wondered if I had been there before. I asked them why they had not finished.

The past perfect tense is often used in English when we are relating two events which happened in the past. It helps to show which event heppened first. Forming the past perfect tense This tense is formed using two components: the verb HAVE (in the past tense), and the past participle form of a verb. With a regular verb the past participle ends with -ED (just like the simple past). Irregular verbs have a special past participle form.

Subject I

HAVE had

Past Participle arrived. eaten. arrived. eaten. arrived. eaten. arrived. eaten. arrived. eaten. arrived. eaten. arrived. eaten.

Contraction I'd arrived. I'd eaten. You'd arrived. You'd eaten. He'd arrived. He'd eaten. She'd arrived. She'd eaten. It'd arrived. It'd eaten. We'd arrived. We'd eaten. They'd arrived. They'd eaten.

You

had

He

had

She

had

It

had

We

had

They

had

The past perfect simple is often used when we report what people had said/thought/believed. He told me they had already paid the bill. He said he believed that John had moved to Italy. I thought we had already decided on a name for this product.

Affirmative Negative Interrogative I had decided I hadn't decided Had I decided? You had decided You hadn't decided Had you decided? He, she, it had decided He hadn't decided Had she decided?

We had decided You had decided They had decided Past perfect, function

We hadn't decided Had we decided? You hadn't decided Had you decided? They hadn't decided Had they decided?

The past perfect refers to a time earlier than before now. It is used to make it clear that one event happened before another in the past. It does not matter which event is mentioned first - the tense makes it clear which one happened first. In these examples, Event A is the first or earliest event, Event B is the second or latest event: Event A John had gone out I had saved my document When they arrived He was very tired Event B when I arrived in the office. before the computer crashed. we had already started cooking because he hadn't slept well. Simple Past Perfect Verb Tense Chart

Auxiliary Subject Verb your letter, and then sent it for I had stamped you. + We had read returned them last week. She had played outside for an hour. in New York, before, I moved to I had not lived Paris. very much, that is why you failed - You had not studied your test. all day, so when he got home was He had not eaten hungry. to the vet. He was very sick for Had the dog gone last week. your teacher. She left you a ? Had you called message a few days ago. the house yesterday, because we Had she cleaned had a party. the books form the library, and Main Verb -

You probably know what perfect means (100% pure, no problems). However, in English grammar, the word perfect means past. Whenever you see the word perfect referring to English grammar, just say past. Therefore, the past perfect means past past. This is exactly what the past perfect means: the past past. In other words, it is an action that happened (and finished) before another action in the past. Look at the time line below.

I ate a big breakfast

I went to school

Now

7:30am What happened first? What happened second?

8:00am

First: I ate breakfast. Second: I went to school. REMEMBER: Both of these activities happened in the past! However, one happened before the other. Here is a common way to write (or say) these two actions using the past perfect. The past perfect is written in red. Before I went to school, I had eaten a big breakfast. -ORAfter I had eaten

breakfast, I went to school.

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