1334 past prerfect

Grammar: Past Perfect
This grammar sometimes works with the simple past using
connectors as: before, because or that.

When speaking with the past perfect tense, we
often contract the subject and auxiliary verb:

* PAST PERFECT BEFORE SIMPLE PAST
* SIMPLE PAST BECAUSE PAST PERFECT
•

Action taking place before a certain time in the past
(Putting emphasis only on the fact, not the duration)
Example:
Maria had attended the people in the factory or Maria had
attended the people in the factory before my father came to
the house.

I had

I'd

you had

you'd

he had
she had
it had

he'd

she'd
it'd

we had

we'd

they had

they'd

How do we make the Past Perfect Tense?
The structure of the past perfect tense is:

subject

+

Or personal
pronouns

auxiliary verb HAVE

+

main verb

conjugated in simple past tense

past participle

had

V3

+

Complement

For negative sentences in the past perfect tense, we insert not between the auxiliary
verb and main verb. For question sentences, we exchange the subject and auxiliary
verb. Look at these example sentences with the past perfect tense:

Complete
1. Before we arrived at school the classes _____
(start)
2. I felt exhausted because I __________ (run)
ten miles.
3. He ___________ (study) that book before he
arrived in Pakistan.
4. He ___________ (sell) all the copies of the
thesaurus before we got there.
5. We went to his place for dinner but to our
great surprise he __________ (have) his dinner.
6. When I got up, rather late, the sun
______________(rise)


subject

auxiliary verb

main verb

+

I

had

finished

my work.

+

You

had

stopped

before me.

-

She

had

not

gone

to school.

-

We

had

not

left.

?

Had

you

arrived?

?

Had

they

eaten

dinner?

1. The storm destroyed the sandcastle that we (build)
2. He (not / be)

.

to Cape Town before 1997.

3. When she went out to play, she (do / already)

her homework.

4. My brother ate all of the cake that our mum (make)

.

5. The doctor took off the plaster that he (put on)
6. The waiter brought a drink that I (not / order)
7. I could not remember the poem we (learn)
8. The children collected the chestnuts that (fall)

six weeks before.
.
the week before.
from the tree.