Past Perfect Tense Simple

Affirmative: Sb + had + vbIII / vbed

Negative: Sb + had not + vbIII / vbed

Interrogative: Had + sb + vbIII / vbed?

Uses:
1. It is used to express a past action finished before another past action or past moment.

She had arrived by 5p.m.

2. It is used in the sequence of tenses, in a direct object clause to express a previous past action
to the past action in the main clause with the verb at past tense.

I didn’t know that he passed all his exams.

3. Present Perfect Tense and Past Tense Simple from direct speech change into Past Perfect
Tense Simple in indirect or reported speech when the saying verb is at Past Tense.

She said that her guests had just left.

4. It is used in time clauses + after, as soon as, when the verb in the main clause is at Past
Tense.

I arrived at the railway station after the train had left.

5. With “wish” :

I wish I had been home.

6. In IF CLAUSE TYPE III:

All the students would have got a good mark if they had studied more.

7. With time expressions:

- It was time
- It is about time
- It is the first time
- It is the second time

It was the first time we had arrived there.

8. After : as if / as though:

He was behaving as if he had been drunk.

9. If only:

If only I had known his address!

10. With :
- Hardly
- Scarcely
- Barely
- No sooner

Hardly had I entered the house when the phone rang.

No sooner had I arrived at school than the bell rang.