Past Perfect Tense
Past perfect Tense is another past tense in English. Sometimes it can be confusing to some learners since it is quite similar to the use of past simple tense but no worry this article will make it completely different from the simple past tense by looking at the usage, forms and examples. Well, Past Perfect Tense is basically used to talk about the action that happened and finished before another past action.
Forms
Positive : Sub + had + past participle (V3).
- She had lived in the countryside before 2010.
- He had locked the door before he left.
- After she had done the laundry, she turned on TV.
- Roza had called her mom before she left.
- When the police arrived, all the thieves had disappeared.
- They had prepared a lot before they presented it to the audience.
Negative : Sub + hadn't (had not) + V3.
- She hadn't lived in the countryside before 2010.
- He hadn't locked the door before he left.
- She hadn't done the laundry before she turned on TV.
- Roza hadn't called her mom before she left.
- When the police arrived, all the thieves hadn't disappeared.
- They hadn't prepared a lot before they presented it to the audience.
Yes/No : Had + Sub + V3..........?
- Had she lived in the countryside before 2000?
- Had she locked the door before she left?
- Had they done their homework before thay played game?
- Had the students left when the teacher arrived?
- Had you done good preparation before you presented it?
Wh-Question: Wh-Word + had + Sub + V3......?
- What had you done before you went to bed?
- Where had she lived before 2000?
- Who had you talked to before I arrived?
- Which car had he driven before he bought a new one?
- How had people travelled before the invention of cars?
Note: The action in past perfect happened and finished before the action in simple past.
He had locked the door before he left.
From this example, we can see the action of locking the door happened and finished before the action of leaving.
Conjunction " After & before"
After conjunction after, we used past perfect tense.
- After she done her homework, she went to bed.
- After we visited the temples, we went back to the hotel.
- After he finished grade 12, he started his university.
Past Perfect is used before the conjunction before.
- She had done her homework before she went to bed.
- We had visited the temples before we went back to the hotel.
- He had finished grade 12 before he started his university.
Practice
1. By the time we ____, everyone had left.
A) arrived
B) had arrived
2. I _____ it before you arrived.
A) finished
B) had finished
3. By that time, everybody ____ exhausted.
A) was
B) had been
4. She told me she ____ it ages ago.
A) did
B) had done
5. I ____ of it until she mentioned it.
A) didn’t hear
B) hadn’t heard
6. I ____ enough time to finish the exam.
A) didn’t have
B) hadn’t had
7. They ____ each other before they got married.
A) knew
B) had known
8. Our teacher ____ homework before we left class.
A) assigned
B) had assigned
9. I _______ a lot of lesson review before the exam last week.
A) did
B) had done
10. Until last month, I _____ it before.
A) didn’t try
B) hadn’t tried
