Past Perfect

What a discussion we had about Past Perfect yesterday! I'm happy to see that you are so inquisitive and try to go deeper into understanding this grammar point. So the most important thing for you is to recognise it and understand why it is used.

So to recognise it you need to know that we form it by using had and past participle. 

E.g. When I arrived Ann had just left. 

You also need to know that we use Past Perfect to:

• to show that one action happened before another action in the past: I did not have any money because I had lost my wallet.
• to show that something started and continued for a period of time in the past up until another action in the past: I had already studied for two years at university by the time I was 20. 

On the other had, you need to keep it in perspective. Past Perfect is quite a low frequency tense and so be careful not to overuse it. In every day speech, when you recall events in a chronological order you just use Past Simple: 

I switched on the TV and I went to the kitchen to have something to eat. 

rather than

I had switched on the TV and  I went to the kitchen to have something to eat. (Although this sentence is correct, there is no need to use Past Perfect in the first part of it.)


For further practice with how to create it watch the video and do the following exercises.


6 exercises (practice with the use of Past Perfect)

Exercises to practise the form of Past Perfect