In this lesson we look at:
A. How do we make the Past Perfect Tense?
The structure of the past perfect tense is:subject | + | auxiliary verb HAVE | + | main verb |
conjugated in simple past tense | past participle | |||
had | V3 |
subject | auxiliary verb | main verb | |||
+ | I | had | finished | my work. | |
+ | You | had | stopped | before me. | |
- | She | had | not | gone | to school. |
- | We | had | not | left. | |
? | Had | you | arrived? | ||
? | Had | they | eaten | dinner? |
I had | I'd |
you had | you'd |
he had she had it had | he'd she'd it'd |
we had | we'd |
they had | they'd |
B. 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.
The train had left when we arrived. | ||||||||
past | present | future | ||||||
Train leaves in past at 9am. | ||||||||
| ||||||||
We arrive in past at 9.15am. |
- 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?"
past perfect tense | present perfect tense | |||||
had | done | > | | have | done | > | | |||||
past | now | future | past | now | future |
- "You are too late. The train has left."
- "We were too late. The train had left."
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.
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