Past Perfect

PAST PERFECT IN ENGLISH

1. We use past perfect for a completed action before something else in the past.

Example: She only understood the movie because she had read the book.

1. We use past perfect for a completed action before something else in the past.

Example: She only understood the movie because she had read the book.

2. We use Past perfect to show that an action started in the past and continued before another action happened

a. We had owned our car for 10 years before it finally died.

b. They had been married for 5 years when they had their first child.

For using this tense we use this grammar structure:

Had + Verb in past participle

*We use had for all the subjects.

Examples:

Karen had finished making dinner by the time her husband came home.

When I arrived at the store, it had closed alread.

Structure for the negative form:

Had not + Verb (Past participle)orHadn't + Verb (Past participle)

The teacher hadn't finished correcting papers when the students started to arrive.

Structure for interrogative questions:

Wh question + had + subject + verb (past participle) +

Had she done the homework before coming to class?

Time expressions for Past perfect

Already She had already seen that movieNever He had never done that before Just I had just arrived when she hit me By the time AfterBefore Until Until then

PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS

You use past perfect continous to show that an action has started in the past and continued and also finished in the past. Also, some actions are followed by new actions that you have to express in past simple.

Past perfect continuous: New actions

Cause and effect

Past perfect continuous: Questions

Past perfect continuous: When, for and since