Past Perfect
If you're here for the first time, you may want to see a list of subjects that will make browsing this website more beneficial. The Past Perfect is quite simple and useful, we use it to show that one action in the past occurred before another action in the past.
- A completed action before another activity in the past
- Third conditional sentences (a) and reported speech (b) (read more at the bottom the page)
- Dissatisfaction with the past
The Past Perfect is also used in a number of expressions like these:
I wish, as if/though and if only
I wish I hadn't gone there.
John looked as if he had done something terrible.
In positive sentences:
TYPICAL MISTAKES:
As soon as the film started, I realized I had seed seen it before.
(the past participle of the verb "to see" is "seen", not "seed")
By the time I had got to the station my train HAD left. ("By the time" indicates that the train had left before the speaker got to the station, not the other way around!)
 When we arrived, the concert had already finished. (Use 1)
It had got/gotten worse before it got better. (Use 1)
By the time I watched my favorite program, I had drunk a cup of beer. (Use 1)
If I hadn't taken my keys from the drawer, I would be able to get into my house. (Use 2a)
My mum asked me whether I had visited grandma the previous day. (Use 2b)
By the time I got to the market, most of the stalls had already been closed. (Use 1)
I wish I had taken more food with me (Use 3)
Use 3 is the so-called hypothetical past. We're talking about things that never happened.
I wish I had fixed my umberella. (but I didn't)
If only I had known the answer to that question. (but I didn't)
Mr. Johnson had read the document carefully before he signed it.
Before I was born, my grandfather had gone to war.
You may find that people (especially native speakers) don't use the Past Perfect.
- After I walked my dog, I went to the cinema
This is because "after" or "before" tell the listener which action happened first.
Still, keep in mind that such sentences are usually used in conversations rather than other situations. Therefore, try to avoid them (especially in tests where you can lose points because of that)
In questions:
Had he known some words before he started learning English?
Had they had any pet before they bought the giraffe?
Common time expressions (time adverbials) in the Past Perfect:
after, before, already, as soon as, just, yet, until, till, by the time that.
In negative sentences:
I hadn't seen Berlin before I flew there in the summer.
He said Mr. Johnson hadn't mowed the lawn (Use 2b)
Brenda didn't call me before her plane had landed.
Past Perfect is used in reported speech (=saying someone else said):
Ann: I was in the US 12 months ago.
George: Ann said she had been in the United States 12 months earlier.
OR
Ann: I have searched all the rooms.
George: Ann said she had searched all the rooms.
So, the Past Simple and the Present Perfect are replaced with the Past Perfect.
Check your understanding
Past Perfect or Past Simple
Past Perfect (forming; positive sentences)
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