Past Perfect

The Past Perfect tense is quite an easy tense to understand and to use. This tense talks about the "past in the past".

In this lesson we look at the structure and use of the Past Perfect tense, followed by a quiz to check your understanding.

How do we make the Past Perfect tense?

The structure of the Past Perfect tense is:

The auxiliary verb (have) is conjugated in the Past Simple: had

The main verb is invariable in past participle form: -ed (or irregular)

For negative sentences we insert not between the auxiliary verb and the main verb.

For question sentences, we exchange the subject and the auxiliary verb.

Look at these example sentences with the Past Perfect tense:

When we use the Past Perfect in speaking, we often contract the subject and the auxiliary verb. We also sometimes do this in informal writing:

In negative sentences, we may contract the auxiliary verb and "not":

The 'd contraction is also used for the auxiliary verb would. For example, we'd can mean:

But usually the main verb is in a different form, for example:

It is always clear from the context.

The Past Perfect tense expresses action in the past before another action in the past. This is the past in the past. For example:

The train left at 9am. We arrived at 9:15am. When we arrived, the train had left.

The train had left when we arrived.

past

present

future

Train leaves in past at 9:00


9:00		9:15

We arrive in past at 9:15

Look at some more examples:

You can sometimes think of the Past Perfect tense like the Present Perfect tense, but instead of the time being now the time is before.

For example, imagine that you arrive at the station at 9:15am. The stationmaster says to you:

Later, you tell your friends:

We often use the Past Perfect in reported speech after verbs like: said, told, asked, thought, wondered

Look at these examples: