1. What is the past perfect tense?
The past perfect is a past before another past. Therefore it needs two events:
- Past Event 1 (event in the past)
- Past Event 2 (event before Past Event 1)
* There must be a connection between these two events (e.g. Dave went to the shop, but the shop had closed). If there is no connection, then they are just two past tense events (e.g. Dave went to the shop, and Agnes drove a bus).
2. Past tense + past perfect tense
Because the past perfect structure describes two events (Past Event 1 and Past Event 2), it uses two tenses: the past tense and the past perfect tense.
The past tense establishes a past.
The past perfect tense then describes what happened earlier than the past (past before a past).
| Past Event 1 | Past event 2 (before Past Event 1) | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| she got home | her ice cream had melted | By the time she got home, her ice cream had melted. |
| the teacher gave us a book | I had read it | The teacher gave us a book to study, but I had read it before. |
| she met us at the restaurant | she had already eaten | She had already eaten before she met us at the restaurant. |
| they went to live in Australia | they hadn’t studied English | They hadn’t studied English before they went to live in Australia. |
3. How to make the past perfect tense
To make the past perfect tense:
- subject + had + perfect participle (p.p.)
*p.p. = done, gone, seen, eaten, etc.
| Subject | Had | P.p. | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | had | eaten | Anthea asked me to lunch, but I had already eaten. |
| The party | had | finished | Chuck arrived at the house, but the party had finished. |
| Lorna and Wes | had | broken | Dustin wanted to use the tree swing, but Lorna and Wes had broken it. |
4. Position of past perfect
The past perfect is made of two parts: Past Event 1 (past tense) and Past Event 2 (past perfect tense).
These can be placed in either order:
*Note that the conjunction or linking structure needs to change to make the time sequence clear.
5. Past perfect tense vs. multiple past simple tenses
When people talk about the past, they usually use the past simple tense.
| I went to the park. | She kicked me. |
| The cat ran away. | The government raised taxes. |
Each past tense moves the sentence to a new time. This creates a sequence (‘a’ happened, then ‘b’ happened).
| She kissed him and he cried. | Paul went to Berlin after he visited Munich. |
| Sarah missed the bus and so walked to school. | Dev was angry because Justin ate his cookie. |
However, sequences do not work well for sentences that move times backwards and forwards in time. The reader doesn’t know which time the sentence is meant to be in.
The past perfect allows the sentence to establish a past tense, then describe a ‘past before a past’ without moving the primary time.
| Multiple past simples (awkward time jumping) | Primary time | Past simple + past perfect (establish past, then look back) | Primary time |
|---|---|---|---|
| She didn’t study English before she went to live in Australia, but after she got there she studied every day. | Unclear (didn’t study English vs. went to Australia) | She hadn’t studied English before she went to live in Australia, but after she got there she studied every day. | Went to Australia |
| The teacher gave us a book to study, but I read it before. I got a copy when I was a child and enjoyed it. | Unclear & poor grammar (teacher gave book vs. read it before) | The teacher gave us a book to study, but I had read it before. I had got a copy when I was a child and had enjoyed it. | Teacher gave book |
The past perfect also makes context easier to understand in conversations and stories.
| Only past tense | Using past perfect |
|---|---|
| “Did you take Julia to that restaurant last week?” “Yes, although she ate before she got there.” | “Did you take Julia to that restaurant last week?” “Yes, although she had already eaten.” |
| “I heard you went to watch Titanic 2 yesterday.” “Yes, but I saw it before I watched it yesterday.” | “I heard you went to watch Titanic 2 yesterday.” “Yes, but I had seen it before.” |
| “Did you know any Chinese before you came to Shanghai?” “I studied a little, but did not learn very much.” | “Did you know any Chinese before you came to Shanghai?” “I had studied a little, but hadn’t learnt very much.” |
| Peter arrived at the school a little after the bell rang. Before he arrived all the students went inside. Peter had to walk into the building by himself. He entered the classroom but the teacher was doing the class. He sat at the back of the room, hoping she didn’t see him, or she decided before not to notice. | Peter arrived at the school a little after the bell had rung. All the students had already gone inside, and Peter had to walk into the building by himself. As he entered the classroom he saw the teacher had started the lesson. He sat at the back of the room, hoping she didn’t see him, or had decided not to notice. |
6. Exercises
1. Finish these sentences using the past perfect tense:
(i) She went to the party, and saw the host had …
(ii) They sat down to watch TV at 6 o’clock, but the programme …
(iii) I was amazed when I saw that my sister ….
2. Think of an event in the past. Add a past before that using the past perfect.