Unit 1.

Past
Perfect Simple
and
Continuous.
How to Form The Past Perfect Tense
REGULAR VERBS
How to Use the Past Perfect Tense?
It is used:
1. To describe an action finished before another past action.

★ Richard had gone out when his wife arrived in the office.

2. To describe an action that happened before a specific time in the past.

★ Christine had never been to an opera before last night.

3. To describe cause and effect (combine with Past Simple)

★ I got stuck in traffic because there had been an accident.

4. To emphasize the result of activity in the past.

★ I had been to London twice by the time I got a job in New York.
EXERCISE 1. Put the verbs into the correct form (past perfect simple).
1. The storm destroyed the sandcastle that we (build) _______________________________.

2. He (not / be) _________________________________ to Cape Town before 1997.

3. When she went out to play, she (do / already) ________________________her homework.

4. My brother ate all of the cake that our mum (make) _________________________________.

5. The doctor took off the plaster that he (put on) ____________________six weeks before.

6. The waiter brought a drink that I (not / order) ________________________________________.

7. I could not remember the poem we (learn) _________________________the week before.

8. The children collected the chestnuts that (fall) ________________________from the tree.

9. (he / phone) _____________________________ Angie before he went to see her in London?

10. She (not / ride) _______________________________________ a horse before that day.

Exercise 2. ANECDOTE GAP FILL.

This happened about two years ago when I ____________________ (work) for a small family-owned business in
London.

It was a Friday afternoon and I _______________ (take) a tea break. I __________________(do) the stocktaking all day and
I was tired. The boss ________________ (go) out at lunchtime and hadn’t come back yet. But that was quite normal as
he usually took long lunches.

I ________________ (just / finish) my tea and was about to go back to work when a young man ____________(walk) into
the office and asked for ‘dad.’ When I asked him who he meant he said, ‘Arthur, the boss’. Then he said, ‘Oh, you’re
new, aren’t you?’

Which was true as I ____________________________(work) there a few weeks. I told him Arthur ____________ (go) and
asked if I could help. He said he needed to pick something up from Arthur’s office and went in. He ______________
(leave) a few minutes later and asked me to tell his dad he___________(be) in and would call him later.

When the boss came back I _____________________ (tell) him his son _________________ (be) in.He looked very surprised
and said he hadn't got a son. He then looked in the office and ____________________ (find) that his briefcase and some
cash __________________(steal).