Past perfect tense Session

Past perfect tense Session

We form the Past Perfect by using had with the past participle:

Sub. + had + 3^rd form of verb + object

Positive : l/you/he/she/it/we/you/they had finished

Short forms : 1/you/he/she/we/you/they'd finished.

Negative  : l/you/he/she/it/we/you/they had not finished

Short forms : l/you/he/she/it/we/you/they hadn't finished

Questions : Had l/you/he/she/it/we/you/they finished?

Short answers : Yes, I had         No, we hadn't

We use the Past Perfect to talk about an action in the past that happened at a time before another action in the past:

1. The thief had gone before the police came.

2. You had studied English before you moved to Mumbai.

3. Had you studied English before you moved to Mumbai?

We use the Past Perfect to show that something started in the past and continued up until another action in the past.

1. We had had that car for ten years before it broke down.

2. By the time Avi finished his studies, he had been in London for over eight years.

3. They felt bad about selling the house because they had owned it for more than forty years.

We normally use the Past Perfect if we tell the' story like this:

Vijay went home early. He had worked hard, (the story goes back)

But we normally use the Past Simple if we tell the story like this:

 Vijay worked hard. Then he went home, (the story goes forward)