Past perfect

Past perfect

Do you know how to use phrases like They'd finished the project by March or Had you finished work when I called? Test what you know with interactive exercises and read the explanation to help you.

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

Grammar B1-B2: Past perfect: 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

Grammar B1-B2: Past perfect: 2

 

Language level

Average: 4.1 (153 votes)
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Submitted by Tony1980 on Sun, 08/12/2024 - 17:19

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Hi LearnEnglish Team

First, thank you for your insightful and highly informative comments. 

1)It still hadn’t rained at the beginning of May. 

2)We had been very playful the whole of the last year. 
3)We had been very playful last year. 

Correct me if I’m wrong. 2) and 3) unlike 1)  don’t have a point in time so that the action in the past perfect can relate to but rather a period of time which expresses the duration of the action in pp. 

Andi

Hello Andi,

All of these sentences must describe a situation/action/state in the past before another action in the past. The first is obvious: the writer or speaker is looking back from the perspective of May (in the past) further back into the past before May. The other two sentences are not so clear. In order for the past perfect to be used, however, there needs to be another past time reference point which may be evident from the context in which the sentences occur, or implied more generally in the narrative. Without this, a non-perfect past form would be used (were very playful).

Most narratives (stories, novels etc) are written in past tense. This naturally leads to the use of the past perfect for events before the main time context of the story.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Hi Peter Thank you for your elaborate response. What I struggle with sometimes is differentiating between a point of time and a period of time. So ‘at the beginning of May’ is a point of time and therefore it’s ok for the p.p. to be used and ‘the whole of last year/ last year ‘ are periods of times and p.p. Can’t be used ? Andi

Hi again Andi,

The past perfect needs to be an action before another action in the past which in some way influences the later action. It doesn't matter if you're talking about a long action or a short one, a period of time or a point in time. For example:

We had lived there for 25 years when John moved in. [a long period of time]

We had lived there since 1999 when John moved in. [a point in time]

Generally we use 'the previous year' with past perfect as we are looking back from the past:

We had worked on the project for the whole of the previous year, so it was a relief to finally finally finish it.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by Tony1980 on Mon, 02/12/2024 - 15:14

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Hi LearnEnglish Team

It had been years since I had ridden a bike. 

I’m really struggling to find the first action that took place here. Can you please elaborate. 

Thanks in advance 

Andi

Hello Andi,

The person rode a bike (first) and then years passed without riding a bike (second). However, for the past perfect to make sense here there needs to be another action which is later in the past. The sentence is clearly taken out of context which is why that third action is missing.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by Tony1980 on Sun, 01/12/2024 - 14:20

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Hi LearnEnglish Team

Heidi Hankins aged 4 sat an iq test after staff at her nursery 1)had said / 2)were saying she was so intelligent they were struggling to find activities to challenge her. 
Which is the wrong verb form here and why ? 
I know that the past perfect is correct here but the past continuous seems fine to me as well. 
Thank you in advance 

Andi

Hi Andi,

Both forms are possible and so is the past simple (said).

The past perfect makes it clear that first the staff gave their opinion and then in response Heidi took the test. The past simple expressed a sequence (first they spoke and then she took the test) but does not necessarily make this connection, though a reader would probably assume that this was the case from the context. The past continuous tells us that the staff did not just give their opinion once but did so either repeatedly or over an extended period of time.

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team

Submitted by Teresa R. on Thu, 07/11/2024 - 09:55

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Hello! Can you help me check if the answers I’ve given in this exercise are correct? I have to choose the correct tense of the verb in parenthesis. It could be any tense. Some of them, I think, require a past perfect, but I’m not sure. 

"I (arrive) arrived home last night to find that my house (flood) had flooded. Someone (forget) had forgotten (turn) to turn off the bathroom tap, and water (pour) was pouring out the whole day. Before (phone) phoning the plumber I checked (see) to see that the electricity supply was turned off, because I didn’t want there (be) to be a fire as well as a flood."

Hello Teresa,

Your answers are good, though I would probably say 'Someone forgot to turn off the tap and water had been pouring out ...'. But it kind of depends on how you choose to describe the situation.

Hope this helps.

Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team