Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Introduction __________________________________________________________________
The past perfect tense is often used in English when we are relating two events which happened in the past. It helps to show which event happened first. This page will explain the rules for forming and using the tense. ______________________________________________________________________________
had
You
had
He
had
She
had
It
had
It'd arrived. It'd eaten. We'd arrived. We'd eaten. They'd arrived. They'd eaten.
We
had
They
had
Here, we don't know which order the events happened in. That may be important -- perhaps I went to see the movie after the discussion, or maybe I saw the movie before the discussion. There are many ways to make this sequence clear, and the past perfect is one of them. This is how we do it: I went to see the movie. We had discussed it in class.
Here, we KNOW that the discussion took place FIRST -- even though the sentence describing it comes afterwards. We discussed the movie, and THEN I went to see it. This can be very useful when you are telling a story or relating a sequence of events. At any point in your story, you can jump BACK to a previous event, and your reader will not be confused, because the past perfect will make it clear that the event happened previously. Here is another example: I wanted to live in a foreign country, so I applied for a job in Japan. Judy lived in Japan, so I
called her to find out more about the culture and lifestyle there. (Judy was probably still living in Japan when I called her.) I wanted to live in a foreign country, so I applied for a job in Japan. Judy had lived in Japan, so I called her to find out more about the culture and lifestyle there. (Judy no longer lived in Japan -- she returned from there before I applied for the job.)
EXAMPLES:
1. When I got home my parents had just left. 2. When I met him he was 24. He had been in the States for 10 years (since he was 14
fourteen).
3. The airline had lost my suitcase so I had to borrow clothes from a friend. 4. We met him in Austin in 1998. We had last visited him five years before. 5. She had just prepared dinner when her husband called and said that he would be late. 6. We had never seen such beautiful white beaches before we went to Australia. 7. When he had gone, I went back into the house. 8. We thought we had seen the last of raindrops falling, when another downpour began. 9. The grin had left his face and he was staring at his girlfriend. 10. They didn't want to leave until they had seen all the paintings. 11. If I had known her address, I would have visited her.
12. She saw footprints and realized that someone had been in the garden. 13. He had always wanted to go to New Zealand, but could never save the money.
Soriah ____________ her mother after she ____________ the cat. 5. First, Marie did her homework. Then, she watched TV. Marie _____________ her homework before she ______________ TV.