THE PAST PERFECT

By Titouan and Younes

The Past perfect

start

Summary

The denomination of this tense

The formation

When to use it ?

The indicators

The difference between Past Perfect and Past Simple

Exercise

The denomination of this tense

Express a past action, already finished when another past action happened. It can be compared to the Plus-Que-Parfait in French.

Subject + Had + Past Participle

The formation

Had + Subject + Past Participle

Subject + Hadn't + Past Participle

Examples :

Peter had played video games.

Peter hadn't played video games.

Had Peter played video games ?

When to use it ?

When we have a past action that happened before an action itself in the past, we use the past perfect.

The indicators

Already

By the time

Before

After

Example :

Example :

By the time Doris got to the party, everyone had gone home.

I went to the cinema after I had eaten with my friend.

I had eaten with my friend before I went to the cinema

When I arrived, he had already painted the gate.

The difference between Past Perfect and Past Simple

Past simple expresses actions that occurred in the past, whereas past perfect talks about something that occurred before another past event or action.

Example : Donald

Donald eat breakfast

Donald go to school

7:00

7:30

PRESENT

Before he went to school, Donald had eaten breakfast.

Exercise: translate these sentences

Mary finit son travail

Mary va déjeuner

PRESENT

After Mary had finished her work, she went to lunch.

Je n'étais pas dans la maison avant qu'ils n'entrent.

Après que Mary ait fini son travail, elle est allée déjeuner.

Je ne suis pas dans la maison

Ils entrent

PRESENT

I hadn't been in the house, before they came in.

Peter avait-il mangé le dernier chocolat quand tout le monde est arrivé ?

Peter mange le dernier chocolat

Tout le monde arrive

PRESENT

Had Peter eaten the last chocolate by the time everyone arrived ?