Past Perfect

HadHadn't Past participle

Past Perfect

3. Language & Culture

9. Informal Speech

6. Negative Sentence

2. Rules

8. Clarification

5. Affirmartive Contractions

7. Negative Contractions

4. Affirmative Sentence

1. When to use it

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1. When to use it

• The meeting had ended before we arrived

It describes an action that ocurred before a specific time in the past.

1 past action precedes another past action

2. Rules

had

Form the past perfect with the auxiliary verb had.

Rule 1

• She
• He
• It

• I
• You
• We
• They

Some regular verbs

• call called called
• Open opened opened
• Study studied studied

Some irregular verbs

• Go went gone
• Come came come
• Meet met met

Always use the past participle form of verbs

Rule 2

Third column verbs

Past participle

Had

Auxiliary

1 action before the past

Past of the past

3. Language and culture

In British English, the past forms of some words can be regular or irregular!

4. Affirmative Sentence and Time Markers

had

already

By 4 o'clock...

dancedgone bought

IYou We They She He It

6. Negative Sentences and Time Markers

had

not

yet.

When it started...

dancedgone bought

IYou We They She He It

had

IYou We They She He It

7. Negative contractions

hadn't

not

8. Clarification

past

Simple

Use the past perfect with the simple past tense or the past of be to clarify which of two past actions ocurred first.

perfect

Past

01

02

Ann had already met Kazuko

01

02

The meeting had began late,

so we didn't have lunch until 2

By the time the tour was over,

First Ann and Kazulo met; then the tour was over.

First the meeting began, then we had lunch.

By April he started his new job

In informal speech, you can use the simple past tense instead of the past perfect when the words by, before, and after make the order of events clear.

9. informal Speech

Past simpleAfter she made the presentation,

Past simpleBefore I got married,

Past simpleI studied marketing.

Past simple they promoted her