24235 past perfect

Past Perfect

Use the right form of the verbs in brackets

1. Comment on the use of the Past Perfect in the following
sentences
1. The policeman asked if there had been any witnesses.
2. By the time we got to the shopping centre it had closed.
4. The students had written the test and were then checking
them up.
5. She complained that she was penniless as she had spent all
her money.
6. It turned out that Dick was ill and he had been ill for a
fortnight.
7. Hardly had I turned on the television, when I heard shocking
news.
8. By next morning, the snow that had begun in the night had
turned into a blizzard so thick that the last class of the term
was cancelled.
9. She had a stock of excuses, as usual, when in fact she had
overslept as usual.
10. We learnt that they had been close friends for many years.

3. Each sentence has one mistake.
Write the correct sentences.
1 He won lots of awards by the time
he was 16.
2 I’m sorry, I tried to phone but you
already left.
3 By the time he was 14 he had
already wrote his first book.

4 He had knew where to go because
he had been there before.
5 She became famous she had made
her first invention.

2. Use the right form of the verbs in brackets –
Past Simple or Past Perfect
1. She (talk) about the party she (arrange) for the
children who (attend) her Sunday-school classes.
2. Jack and Amelia were the only family she ever (have).
3. She got dressed in the cotton shorts and top she
(wear) the day before.
4. Mari glanced over at the clock. It (be) nearly nine.
She recently (learn) to tell the time.
5. It was lovely to hear her laugh again. He not (hear)
her laugh in years.
6. The prisoner (spend) almost a month digging a tunnel
before the guards (discover) it.
7. He said he (be) awfully sorry for the things he (do).
8. She seated herself in the chair Bill (pull) out for her.
9. Roger guessed that she just (make) a dreadful slip of
the tongue.
10. Before the mid-nineteenth century, no dentist (use)
anesthesia.

4. Choose the right variant
1
The
storm
destroyed

the
sandcastle that we built/ had built.

2 She didn’t ride/ hadn’t ridden a
horse before that day.
3 After she had given/ gave the
note to the front desk, her son led
her outside.
4 She sat staring at the page she
had written/ wrote last night in New
York.
5 It was /had been a long time since
I had seen/ saw him in such a
difficult mood.

5. Which of the following things
have you done by your sixteenth
birthday? Use the Past Perfect
tense to answer.
Model: By my sixteenth birthday, I
had smoked
cigarettes and decided that I was
never going to smoke again.
learn to drive
go on my first date
study physics
fall in love
have my first kiss
learn how to support myself
live apart from my parents

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