PAST PERFECT

FORMS:

Affirmative: HAD + PAST PARTICIPLE (had eaten, had done, had been,...)

Negative: HAD NOT + PAST PARTICIPLE

USE:

· We use this tense to talk about what happened before another event in the past.

· It is used in combination with the past simple. (Revise the Past Simple here: https://www.terceflmc.com/post/past-simple-continuous)

At the airport I realized that I had left my passport at home.

(First, I left my passport at home and then (later) I went to the airport where I noticed I didn’t have it.)

MIND THIS DIFFERENCE!!!

When I got home, my husband left.

(I was at home and then he left.)

When I got home, my husband had left.

(I arrived home after he had left. He had left the house before me.)

ADVERBS

· already (= before the specified time)

· still (= as previously)

· just (= a very short time before the specified time)

· ever (= at any time before the specified time)

· never (= at no time before the specified time)

SIGNAL WORDS:

• after

• before

• until

When these signal words are in the sentence, it's not necessary to use past perfect.

Example:

I had been robbed before I got home. (That means that robbing happened before I arrived. 'Before' signals when it happened, therefore we could say: I was robbed before I got home. The meaning is still clear.)

EXPRESSIONS:

· For: I was sorry when the company went bankrupt. I had worked there for twenty years.

· Since: I was sorry when the company went bankrupt. I had worked there since I was 18 years old.

EXAMPLES:

Our holiday wasn’t exactly what we’d expected.

I went to her house, but she’d already left.

Mark had never met anyone so nice before he met Marie.

After we threw the postcard to the post-box, we realized we had forgotten to write the address on it.

EXERCISES

PAST PERFECT (only)

1 https://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/past-perfect-exercise-1.html

2 https://www.grammarbank.com/past-perfect-tense-exercise.html

3 https://www.grammarism.com/past-perfect-exercises/

PAST PERFECT & PAST SIMPLE (combo)

4 https://www.english-grammar.at/online_exercises/tenses/t057-past-past-perfect.htm

5 https://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/past-perfect-exercise-3.html

6 https://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/simpas-pasper/exercises?ex04

7 https://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/simpas-pasper/exercises?ex03

8 https://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/simpas-pasper/exercises?ex06

9 https://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/simpas-pasper/exercises?ex08

TIP!

You should revise irregular verb forms to be able to use correct past participle forms.

Practise them here:

https://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/irregular-verbs-exercise-3.html

https://www.cityu.edu.hk/lc/quiz/irrequiz.htm (all forms)

PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS

FORM:

USE:

As every English tense, we can express continuous aspect of the past perfect.

It refers to a time in the past in comparison to the Present Perfect which refers to the present.

It shows that an action that started in the past continued up until another time in the past.

This tense shows something that began in the past, continued in the past, and also ended at a defined point in the past.

EXAMPLES:

I had been working on this project for five months when the boss decided it would be terminated.

Hans was a wonderful musician. He had been playing ever since he was 5 years old.

PRACTICE:

1 https://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/past-perfect-continuous-exercise-1.html

2 https://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/past-perfect-continuous-exercise-2.html

3 https://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/past-perfect-progressive/exercises

4 https://www.grammarism.com/past-perfect-continuous-exercises/

5 https://onlymyenglish.com/exercise-past-perfect-continuous-tense/

COMBO WITH PAST SIMPLE

1 https://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/past-perfect-continuous-past-simple-exercise-1.html