LearnEnglish Hub
In our new Learning hub, you can put your language into practice. Take part in the activities and practise your English skills by writing comments, recording yourself speaking and sharing photos with descriptions.
Past perfect
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
Language level
Do you need to improve your English grammar?
Join thousands of learners from around the world who are improving their English grammar with our online courses.
Hello shubhamgupta,
The first sentence, with the past perfect verb, puts more emphasis on the fact that the planned action was to happen earlier than the other one. You could use either sentence with no difference in meaning in most any context I can think of.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi jityo,
1) 'was abandoned' is a passive construction in the past simple
2) We often use the passive voice when the subject of the verb is unknown. In this situation, we don't know who abandoned the child and the passive voice communicates this.
3) It's grammatically correct to say 'A baby boy abandoned', but it doesn't make much sense, since in general babies aren't even able to walk and therefore cannot abandon anyone or anything.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello katarey65,
The use of the past perfect is dependent on the context in which the action occurs. It describes one or more actions which occur before another action, and which in some way have an effect on, cause or change the later action.
In your sentence in isolation the correct forms is 'laughed', not 'had laughed'. However, there could be a context which makes 'had laughed' possible.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Callista,
Either form can work in that sentence. 'had been' emphasises the sequence (first treatments, then dismissal) more, but both are correct.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Aisha na Shadee,
The tenses in your sentence are all correct. Yes, the past simple can be used to narrate a sequence of past events; the past perfect wouldn't be appropriate here.
I would recommend breaking up the sentence into shorter pieces. For example, after 'late' and before 'try'.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team