How do we make the Past Perfect Tense?
The structure of the past perfect tense is:
(+) S + had + V3 + O
(-) S + had + not + V3 + O
(?) Had + S + V3 + O?
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 | 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? |
When speaking with the past perfect tense, we often contract the subject and auxiliary verb:
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 |
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. |
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?"
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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