Past Perfect
In this lesson, we are looking at the past tense, using ‘had’. You can test yourself with the quiz at the end of the lesson.
Time up to a point in the past
Past perfect is used to talk about actions that were finished before a time in the past.
She‘d started by the time we arrived
They‘d spoken to everyone before I had a chance.
Had everything been finished before he arrived?
Structure: had + past participle
Past perfect for the earlier of two past actions
The past perfect can be used to show the order of events. The earlier event is shown using the past perfect.
When he got to the party, the guests had eaten everything
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Other info
The order of the sentence doesn’t matter, just where the past participle is.
The guests had eaten everything, when he arrived
Adverbs
Adverbs like already, still, just, ever or never are often used with the past perfect.
I went to her house but she’d already left.
It still hadn’t turned dark by 11pm!
I‘d never seen so many beautiful places
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