THE PAST PERFECT

Form

Affirmative: (subject + had + past participle)

Negative: (subject + had+ not + past participle)

Question: (had + subject + past participle)

Usage

The past equivalent of the present perfect, e.g. When I arrived the concert had started.

So, which was first, my arrival or the start of the concert? And how do you know?

Well, hopefully your answers to the 2 questions were:

The start of the concert.

Because I wrote ‘had started’.

Had started is an example of the Past Perfect. Now have a look at these 4 sentences:

1. When I got to the car park I realised that I had lost my keys.

2. She told me she had worked in France and Germany.

3. He arrived late; he hadn’t realised the roads would be so icy.

4. She was upset because Paul hadn’t telephoned.

You should see that all of the past perfect verbs (in bold type) represent actions that occurred before other actions in the past. Thus we can say the past perfect is ‘the past in the past’, or the past viewed from another past viewpoint.

Completely finished actions

Try to complete these 2 sentences with a suitable word to emphasise the fact that a past perfect action is 100% over:

 “______ he had painted the kitchen, he decided to rest.”

 “______ she had finished the report, she realized that it was too late to post it.”

As you have probably guessed, after and when are often used to show that a past action had completely finished before another action in the past started.