CONTENT
The past perfect simple tense, also known as pluperfect tense, is used to talk about the actions that happened before a certain moment in the past. It is also often used together with the past simple tense.
Signal words for the past perfect include already, just, once, never, not yet, until that moment, etc. Some of these signal words are the same as those for the present perfect, so it's important to note that words for the past perfect refer to the past.
Example
Explanation
I started working only after I had made a cup of ice-cold coffee for myself.
The past perfect tense expresses the action (make coffee) that took place before a cerain moment in past (start working), expressed using past simple.
Conjugation
Rule 1: To form the past perfect simple tense, we use the same stucture had + past participle for all persons.
Here's an overview of how to conjugate positive, negative and interrogative sentences in the English past perfect tense:
| Person | Positive | Negative | Question |
|---|---|---|---|
| I / you / we / they; he / she / it | I had worked. | They had not worked. | Had she worked? |
| Person | Positive | Negative | Question |
|---|---|---|---|
| I / you / we / they; he / she / it | I had worked. | They had not worked. | Had she worked? |
Note: In spoken and informal English, we can also use contractions in the past perfect tense - a short form of the verb had and particle not.
Here's an overview of contractions for the past perfect simple tense:
| Long Form | Contraction | Example |
|---|---|---|
| had | 'd | they'd |
| had not | 'd not / hadn't | they'd not / they hadn't |
| Long Form | Contraction | Example |
|---|---|---|
| had | 'd | they'd |
| had not | 'd not / hadn't | they'd not / they hadn't |
Usage
Rule 2: We use the past perfect simple tense together with past simple to describe actions that took place before a certain time in the past.
Example
Explanation
When my brother came home, our mother had already cooked dinner.
Here, past perfect expresses the action (cook dinner) that happened before a certain moment in the past (brother came home), described using past simple.
Rule 3: We use the past perfect simple tense with would have + past participle to form the third conditional. This type-III if-clause is used to talk about past situations that did not happen.
Example
Explanation
If I had not applied for this internship, I would have been less experienced now.
This is the third conditional is used to talk about the situation that did not happen in the past and its possible outcome.
Quiz
1/4
Complete the sentence. We they arrived to the cinema, the movie ___ already.
0
correct answers.