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 after before
We can also use before + past perfect 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
Hi Yigido,
These are good questions :) Yes, if the past perfect is used, there must be a second past action or time. But, it could be somewhere else in the conversation, i.e. a previous or later sentence. It doesn't need to be in the same sentence. For example:
In this example, the past perfect (we had already seen the film) shows that that action happened some time before the other past actions.
If the narrative is in the present, then we use the present perfect.
Does that make sense?
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Yigido,
Yes, we do use the present simple after when. But it's not the only option. We can use other tenses too, depending on the timeframe of the actions in the sentence. Here, the action (our guests had all left) must have happened before the other past action (We had a good rest), so that's why the past perfect is used here.
Best wishes,
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Amit01,
It is grammatically correct except for one small thing: instead of 'what is it', the correct form is 'what it is'.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Amit01,
We use the past perfect when there two past actions, and we want to show which one happened first (i.e. earlier). In this sentence, had played a major role happened before liberation in 1971, so that's why it's in the past perfect.
But, we often simplify it and use the past simple instead of the past perfect. We do that if the sentence clearly shows which action happened first. Here, it's quite clear that played a major role happened before liberation - because that makes sense logically as a cause and effect, and also played a major role is mentioned first in the sentence (i.e. the actions are in the same order in the sentence as the order that they happened). So, the past simple would be fine here too!
Does that make sense?
Jonathan
The LearnEnglish Team