Basic English: Past Perfect Tense (English Mania Spoken english classes in bhubaneswar)

FUNCTIONS OF THE PAST PERFECT

We don’t use the past perfect a lot in English, but it is useful, and it sounds very good if you can use it correctly. Also, it’s really easy to make – just the past simple of ‘have’ and the past participle.

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 event that happened first and Event B is the second or more recent event:

 

 Event A                                      Event B

John had gone out            when I arrived in the office.

 

Event B                                     Event A

When they arrived                      we had already started cooking.

 

 Event B                                   Event A

He was very tired              because he hadn’t slept well.

 

FORMING THE PAST PERFECT

The Past Perfect tense in English is composed of two parts:

The past tense of the verb to have (had) + the past participle of the main verb.

 

Subject              had         past participle

Affirmative

She                      had              given

Negative

She                    hadn’t         asked.

Interrogative

Had                    they            arrived?

 

PAST PERFECT + JUST

‘Just’ is used with the past perfect to refer to an event that was only a short time earlier than before now, e.g.

Example:

The train had just left when I arrived at the station.

She had just left the room when the police arrived.

I had just put the washing out when it started to rain.

 

 

Other Example

Affirmative

• I had been (I’d been)
• You had gone (you’d gone)
• She had met (she’d met)
• He had played (he’d played)
• It had rained (it’d rained)
• We had bought (we’d bought)
• They had studied (they’d studied)

 

Negative

• I had not been (I hadn’t been)
• You had not gone (you hadn’t gone)
• She had not met (she hadn’t met)
• He had not played (he hadn’t played)
• It had not rained (it hadn’t rained)
• We had not bought (we hadn’t bought)
• They had not studied (they hadn’t studied)

 

‘wh’ questions

• When had I come?
• Why had you eaten?
• Where had she gone?
• When had it rained?
• Why had he studied?
• How had we met?
• When had they left?

 

‘yes / no’ question

• Had I come?
• Had you eaten?
• Had she gone?
• Had it rained?
• Had he studied?
• Had we met?
• Had they left?