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Past Perfect

The document explains the Past Perfect tense, highlighting its formation using 'had' plus the past participle and its distinction from the Past Simple tense. It details the usage of Past Perfect for indicating actions that occurred before another past action, providing examples and emphasizing its importance in reported speech and conditional sentences. Additionally, it notes that while Past Perfect is often necessary for clarity, it can sometimes be substituted with Past Simple when the sequence of actions is clear.

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Ahmad Sodais Farhowmand
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8 views7 pages

Past Perfect

The document explains the Past Perfect tense, highlighting its formation using 'had' plus the past participle and its distinction from the Past Simple tense. It details the usage of Past Perfect for indicating actions that occurred before another past action, providing examples and emphasizing its importance in reported speech and conditional sentences. Additionally, it notes that while Past Perfect is often necessary for clarity, it can sometimes be substituted with Past Simple when the sequence of actions is clear.

Uploaded by

Ahmad Sodais Farhowmand
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Past Perfect

*We cannot speak about the past perfect, without looking at the
Past simple.
Basics

Verb 1 verb 2 verb 3


Walk walked Walked >>>>(regular)
Eat ate eaten>>>>>>(irregular)

 Past simple>>>>> Verb 2 >>>>>>I walked to work


 Past perfect>>>> had + verb 3 >>>>> I had walked to work

I’d walked>>>>> I had walked.


You’d walked>>>You had walked.
She’d walked>>>> She had walked.
We’d walked>>>>> we had walked.

But be careful with ‘d + verb 1 (infinitive)


Ex: I’d walk to work >>>> I would walk to work.
For past perfect we use ‘d + verb 3:
I’d walked to work. >>>> I had walked to work.
To contract the negatives:
I hadn’t
You hadn’t
She hadn’t ……………….

Note: I’d not is also correct but (I hadn’t) is more common.

The usage is of Past Perfect: We use the past perfect to talk


about an earlier past.

Had organized was surprised


Past
I was surprised that someone had organized my desk for me.

Had eaten Opened saw


Past
I opened my fridge and saw that my roommate had eaten a piece of my
cake.
 The past perfect is always the first action.

Past perfect……………..past simple


Past simple………………Past perfect

The two sentences are very similar. But Past perfect specifies
the first action clearly.
Real life Usages of Past Perfect:
1) To describe an action or a situation that happened up to
another point in time.

Ex: By the time Mehmet was 7, he had already been to 5


countries.

2) To describe a past situation, using an earlier past.

Ex: I didn’t want to watch the movie because I had


already seen it.

Ex: Carol didn’t know what to do because she hadn’t


received instructions from her boss.

3) To show surprise:

Ex: I woke up and saw that someone had drawn a


mustache on my face.

Ex: By the time I arrived, my accountant had had


three espressos.
Had had = had + (past participle of have)
EX: I was in terrible mood because I had had a
terrible day.

Do we always need Past perfect + past simple???

But you need a past reference. Like Past continuous, background


connection.

Note: The past perfect must be used with another action in the past.
It cannot be used alone
Ex: Elena was crying in the bathroom because someone had made fun
of her clothes.
look at this conversation:
A: The client wants a full refund.
B: Why?
A: You delivered the project two weeks late.
B: Two weeks late? But, we’d already agreed on that. He knew
we needed more time.
Had agreed Was delivered wants refund
Past Present
Examples:
1) After we’d eaten breakfast, we left for our trip.
2) We’d eaten breakfast before we left for our trip.
3) We’d eaten breakfast and then we left for our trip.

Note: when the sequence of actions is cleared, the usage of


past perfect is optional. We can also use past simple for this
case.

1) After we ate breakfast, we left for our trip.


2) We ate breakfast before we left for our trip.
3) We ate breakfast and then we left for our trip.
Why Past perfect is important??

Because we need it for Reported speech, 3rd conditional, and


wish.
Ex: Bill told me that he’d left work early yesterday. (we use the
past perfect to report the past simple).

Ex: If I had checked my schedule more carefully, I wouldn’t have


missed the meeting. (Hypothetical past)

Ex: I wish I had apologized to Ali. (to speak about a past regret)

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