THE PAST PERFECT IN

ENGLISH
PAST PERFECT SIMPLE
 FORM
 AFFIRMATIVE e.g. The boy explained that
(Sb + had + 3vb) he had seen her in the
garden.

 NEGATIVE e.g. The boy hadn’t seen

her in the garden that
(Sb + had not + 3vb) day.

 INTERROGATIVE e.g. Had the boy seen

(Had + sb + 3vb) her…?
 USE
1. Past action before e.g. She came home after
another action/ moment Dan had done his
in the past homework.
e.g. By the time the rain
started he had dug the
2. Duration up to a certain garden.
time in the past
e.g. We did not know that
3. + just, already he had already repaired
our car.
+ hardly/barely/no
sooner … Hardly had we entered that
they knocked at the door.
than+inversion
4. + for/since e.g. In 2000, I had been a
(past reference) teacher for two years.

5. Indirect Speech- to e.g. Nick said he had seen

express anteriority (past that film the week before.
reference)

6. To express a past e.g. I would have told her if

conditional in if-clauses I had met her.
type 3
7. Unfulfilled wish e.g. I wish/wished I had not
missed that part.

8. + had/would rather (with e.g. I’d rather you hadn’t

different sb) found out like that.
+ as if/ as though He acts as if he had been
the boss. (but he isn’t)
9. To express a future
activity before another e.g. I told him that I would
activity expressed by lend him the book when I
Future-in-the-Past. had finished it
PAST PERFECT
CONTINUOUS
 FORM
 AFFIRMATIVE e.g. She had been reading
for 5 hours…
(Sb+had been+vb+ing)

 NEGATIVE e.g. She hadn’t been

(sb+hadn’t reading…
been+vb+ing)

 INTERROGATIVE e.g. Had she been waiting

for a long time?
(had+sb+been+vb+ing
 USE
1. To emphasise e.g. They had been
duration of past practising for days
activity before when the concert
another past activity started.

2. Indirect Speech to e.g. He explained that

reflect a he had been watching
past/pres.perf TV for one hour only.
continuous in DS