
Look at these examples to see how the past perfect is used.
He couldn't make a sandwich because he'd forgotten to buy bread.
The hotel was full, so I was glad that we'd booked in advance.
My new job wasn't exactly what I’d expected.
Try this exercise to test your grammar.
- Grammar test 1
Read the explanation to learn more.
Grammar explanation
Time up to a point in the past
We use the past perfect simple (had + past participle) to talk about time up to a certain point in the past.
She'd published her first poem by the time she was eight.
We'd finished all the water before we were halfway up the mountain.
Had the parcel arrived when you called yesterday?
Past perfect for the earlier of two past actions
We can use the past perfect to show the order of two past events. The past perfect shows the earlier action and the past simple shows the later action.
When the police arrived, the thief had escaped.
It doesn't matter in which order we say the two events. The following sentence has the same meaning.
The thief had escaped when the police arrived.
Note that if there's only a single event, we don't use the past perfect, even if it happened a long time ago.
The Romans spoke Latin. (NOT
The Romans had spoken Latin.)
Past perfect with before
We can also use the past perfect followed by before to show that an action was not done or was incomplete when the past simple action happened.
They left before I'd spoken to them.
Sadly, the author died before he'd finished the series.
Adverbs
We often use the adverbs already (= 'before the specified time'), still (= as previously), just (= 'a very short time before the specified time'), ever (= 'at any time before the specified time') or never (= 'at no time before the specified time') with the past perfect.
I called his office but he'd already left.
It still hadn't rained at the beginning of May.
I went to visit her when she'd just moved to Berlin.
It was the most beautiful photo I'd ever seen.
Had you ever visited London when you moved there?
I'd never met anyone from California before I met Jim.
Do this exercise to test your grammar again.
- Grammar test 2
Hello Kingson,
If the girl works in the office now then a present simple is the most obvious choice:
Of course, this does not tell us that the girl worked in the office when your friend got married, though that would be the most likely way to understand the sentence. If you needed to make it explicit, then you would need to add the information separately:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Kingson,
The sentence is perfectly correct. It describes an action in the near past which has a present result (choosing) and provides a completed past action (being honest) which provided the motivation for this action.
The sentence has two clauses which are joined by a subordinating conjunction (since). The conjunction expresses a causal relatioship in a similar way to 'because'.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Donald Harrison,
Both sentences are possible; which is appropriate depends upon what you want to say.
The distinctions between indefinite, definite and zero article for generic meaning are very subtle. I wrote a long answer a while ago describing them. You can find that answer here:
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/comment/140263#comment-140263
I think if you read that explanation you should be able to see the difference between your two sentences.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello kingson
'I thought he had finished the work' is grammatically correct. With this sentence, you are expressing your own thinking about the work being finished -- it is irrelevant whether the work is actually finished or not.
Does that answer your question? If not, could you please rephrase it, as I'm not sure I've understood it completely.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Lexeus,
The first sentence is fine. There is no need to express everything in the past perfect, and it makes the sentence very clunky.
The past perfect in your example only expresses one relationship: looking back on the act of telling from the perspective of the moment of recall. The rest is not directly linked. In other words, Tom recalls the telling, not the feeling, the visiting or the seeing.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello govegan
We are currently revising the Intermediate grammar section and this page will be changing quite soon. It's difficult to speculate on the intentions of the people involved and although it's more likely than not that washing the cat was unintentional, I agree that the sentence shows poor taste and so I have changed it. Thanks very much for pointing it out to us and I'm sorry about that.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello kingson
The first one is correct since the 'when' clause makes it clear that the sentence is only about the past. I would recommend taking out the comma, though.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello mara,
This is a similar example to the earlier one you posted. As I said in that answer, we sometimes use the past perfect for actions which are not completed.
For example:
In this sentence the sequence of the actions is clear: first the film started and then Thomas arrived. Both actions happened.
However, if we want to talk about something which did not happen, or which was not complete, then we use the past perfect with before:
Here we understand that one action (Thomas arriving) did not happen, or was not complete.
It may help to think about this as a structure related to what is sometimes called the third conditional. The past perfect is describing something which is not real, or not complete, just as in a past hypothetical conditional sentence.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Giudg1,
Yes, that is perfectly fine, grammatically.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello kingsonselvaraj,
Neither is correct. The phrase 'when you were young' tells us that the person is not young now, so the question is about a finished time period. The past simple is the best option:
The present perfect would be used if we were asking about the person's whole life, not just 'when you were young'.
We have no context for the sentence and no other time point for reference so there is no reason to use a past perfect.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello mara,
We can use the past perfect after 'before' when the action started before a certain time in the past, but was not completed.
In your example, the action of eating began before the person left the table. The use of the verb 'finish' is a little confusing, but in the context of eating we think of 'finishing a meal' as a process, not as a single momentary action.
Here is another example:
The guests arrived before I had finished preparing dinner.
My preparation began before they arrived, but was not finished.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Dmevko,
The past simple is used for sequential actions, so it is fine to say he did this after we did that.
The past perfect makes clear a connection between two actions in the past. We use the past perfect, for example, when one action is the result of another, or is changed or influenced by another. The past perfect would not be wrong in your example, but there would need to be a reason to emphasise the relationship between the two actions beyond simple chronological sequence.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Dmevko,
The present perfect describes actions occuring within an unfinished time period, but the action itself may be finished. For example, I use the present perfect in this sentence because the day has not ended yet:
Here, I've finished the book and there is a result (I can tell you about it) but the time period (today) has not finished.
I use the present perfect continuous if I want to suggest that the action itself is not finished. For example:
Here, the book hasn't been finished.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hell Elysium,
We use the past perfect to refer to a time before another time in the past when there is some connection between the two (cause, influence etc). In other words, the past perfect does not exist in isolation, but always references another action or state, whether explicitly stated or implicit.
In your example it is hard to say why the author used the past perfect because we do not see the whole context in which the sentence is used. This means that we do not know what the connection is between being part of the seminar and another, later, action. It could be that Susan Calvin had been part of... and so was well prepared to do something else, but we cannot see this from the sentence in isolation.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Kingson,
The sentence is not correct, I'm afraid. We do not use the present perfect (have seen) with a finished past time reference (when I visited). You need two past simple tenses here:
We would use the present perfect if the time reference is unfinished. For example, you could refer to your whole life up to now:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello kingsonselvaraj,
The problem with the sentence is that the phrase 'when I visited Vietnam' provides a finished time reference and so it cannot be used with the present perfect. The present perfect refers to an unfinished time, not a finished time. If you are no longer in Vietnam then that time period is complete and is not consistent with the present perfect.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello kingsonselvaraj,
The sentence 'My friend got married to the girl who has been working here in this office"(the girl is still working in the same office' is fine, because the present perfect phrase does not provide a time reference for the past simple action, but simply provides more information about the girl.
As an aside, I would say that the sentence is a little odd and the present perfect does not seem to add any information. A more natural way to phrase it would be to use the present simple (permanent work) or continuous (temporary): 'My friend got married to the girl is working/works here in this office"(the girl is still working in the same office.'
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Kingston,
That is correct. Well done!
The past tense gives us information about the book. Grammtically speaking, it is a restrictive or defining relative clause and has an adverbial function. It does not provide a time reference for the verb in the main clause.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello corflz
Both forms are possible, but the past simple form is probably better in more contexts than the past continuous form.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello kingson
It would be strange to say it that way; 'was working' would be the best form for most situations.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team