Past Perfect Tense
timeline, form, uses

Past Perfect talks about completed actions in the past. Below we’ll explore the Past Perfect tense timeline, form and uses, with examples.
The Past Perfect tense can express the duration of a completed action.
It can also talk about a completed action in the past, before another action in the past.
TO FORM THE PAST PERFECT
The Past Perfect is formed with:
– auxiliary verb ‘had’ (the Past Simple of ‘to have’)
– main verb in the Past Participle form – verb base +ed / +d / irregular

affirmative: subject + had + main verb
negative: subject + had + not + main verb
question: had + subject + main verb
negative question: had + subject + not + main verb
Forms in the Past Perfect of the verb to leave
affirmative
I had left
you had left
he/she/it had left
we had left
you had left
they had left
negative
I had not left
you had not left
he/she/it had not left
we had not left
you had not left
they had not left
questions
had I left?
had you left?
had he/she/it left?
had we left?
had you left?
had they left?
negative questions
had I not left?
had you not left?
had he, she, it not left?
had we not left?
had you not left?
had they not left?
PAST PERFECT USES
to show that an action was completed in the past before another action happened
She had read the book before she went to the see the film.
Robert had not studied English before he went to England.
(Notice the 2nd verb is in the Past Simple)
with indirect speech (also called reported speech)
She told the teacher that she had not done her homework.
with ‘if’ conditional clauses
If I had not washed my car, it probably would not have rained today.
If she had eaten her vegetables, her mother would have let her have pudding.
to express regret about something in the past
I wish I had listened at school.
He wished he hadn’t spent all his money on the car.
Contracted auxiliary verbs
Auxiliary verbs are often contracted, especially in spoken and informal written language.
I had | I'd |
you had | you'd |
he/she/it had | he’d |
we had | we'd |
you had | you'd |
they had | they'd |
all forms had not | hadn’t |
More on contracted auxiliary verbs
Past Perfect tense timeline, form, uses
Related Topics
RECENT POSTS
What is Victorian Steampunk?
So you may have heard the term, but what is Victorian Steampunk …How to dress like a Londoner
Does London have a disctict style? Is it easy to create the …A Simple Explanation of Brexit
It’s not a simple issue but we’re going to try to give …Films to learn English
Learning English shouldn’t be all boring grammar exercises and vocabulary lists. More …British Slang Words
British slang is so commonplace it’s like a whole other language that …Tea Time in Britain
This wouldn’t be a proper Britishness blog if the first post wasn’t …