Look at these examples to see how the past perfect is used.
He couldn't make a sandwich because he'd forgotten to buy bread.
The hotel was full, so I was glad that we'd booked in advance.
My new job wasn't exactly what I’d expected.
Try this exercise to test your grammar.
- Grammar test 1
Read the explanation to learn more.
Grammar explanation
Time up to a point in the past
We use the past perfect simple (had + past participle) to talk about time up to a certain point in the past.
She'd published her first poem by the time she was eight.
We'd finished all the water before we were halfway up the mountain.
Had the parcel arrived when you called yesterday?
Past perfect for the earlier of two past actions
We can use the past perfect to show the order of two past events. The past perfect shows the earlier action and the past simple shows the later action.
When the police arrived, the thief had escaped.
It doesn't matter in which order we say the two events. The following sentence has the same meaning.
The thief had escaped when the police arrived.
Note that if there's only a single event, we don't use the past perfect, even if it happened a long time ago.
The Romans spoke Latin. (NOT
The Romans had spoken Latin.)
Past perfect after before
We can also use before + past perfect to show that an action was not done or was incomplete when the past simple action happened.
They left before I'd spoken to them.
Sadly, the author died before he'd finished the series.
Adverbs
We often use the adverbs already (= 'before the specified time'), still (= as previously), just (= 'a very short time before the specified time'), ever (= 'at any time before the specified time') or never (= 'at no time before the specified time') with the past perfect.
I called his office but he'd already left.
It still hadn't rained at the beginning of May.
I went to visit her when she'd just moved to Berlin.
It was the most beautiful photo I'd ever seen.
Had you ever visited London when you moved there?
I'd never met anyone from California before I met Jim.
Do this exercise to test your grammar again.
- Grammar test 2
Hi howtosay_,
1. You could do, if you want to present all of this information about the earlier dance class as a background context for what you are going to say about the recent dance class. However, I wouldn't suggest doing that. It would be quite grammatically elaborate, and a bit hard to say and understand. Instead, I would use past perfect first of all, to introduce the new topic of the earlier class, and then change to past simple to explain more about it. I had gone to another dance class before. When I went there, I didn't really like our trainer ... That's why I decided to go to another dance school ... This shows that you have changed the focus from "one month ago" to the earlier dance class. It is easier to say and to understand because you are giving quite a lot of information here (5 sentences and a lot of detail). After you explain everything about the earlier dance lesson, you can continue explaining about the "one month ago" dance lesson using past simple.
2. The two sentences have different meanings. In the first one, it is still snowy at the moment of thinking that it was strange. In the second one, it was snowy before that moment, i.e. it was no longer snowy at that moment and you are thinking about a past snowy time (not a present one).
But, you can change the verb to make a sentence that is similar in meaning to the first one: It was very strange that it had snowed. ("to snow" is the action of snow falling on the ground, i.e. it is the start of the state of "being snowy").
I hope that helps!
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
Hello, Jonathan!
It has helped a lot, as usual! Thank you very much for your explanations!!!
Hi there,
Which one is correct?:
1. I had recently finished school when I met him.
2. I had recently met him when I finished school.
If there is something wrong, let me get this straight, please.
Thank you for your feedback.
Hi MgKanKaung,
Both sentences are correct! Their meaning is different, though. In 1, I finished school first and then I met him. In 2, I met him first, and then I finished school.
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
This lesson helps me a lot to understand the past perfect.I really appreciate your lesson.
But, I still confused about something.
I want to ask 2 questions.
A.I looked in the letter box yesterday and the letter still ___.
1.didn't arrive 2.hadn't arrived
B.First I ___ the salad, then I toasted the bread.
1.made 2. 'd made
For number A, why can't we use "didn't arrive?". I think still is the key point or not in number A?
For number B, why can't we use "had made".
Hoping to explaining me.
Hi MgKanKaung,
For A, logically speaking, we are talking about whether the letter arrived before I looked in the letter box. We need the past perfect to show this. If we use the past simple, it does not clearly show that the letter arriving happened before I looked in the letter box. Instead, it seems to mean that I looked in the letter box first, and then "didn't arrive" happened next, which is not a logical order. The word "still" emphasises the fact that the letter is not here, although the speaker was expecting it for a long time. It's not the key point. The key point is the order of actions.
For B, the reason is that the past perfect is used not simply when one action happens before another, but when the two actions have some kind of connection. One action influences the other in some way. (For example, in sentence A, the connection is that I looked in the letter box because I was expecting to find the letter there.) However, in B, there is no such connection. You may be interested to read Peter's reply to this question (click the link) for more explanation.
I hope that helps to understand it!
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
Ah lovely explaining!, I got the points clearly .Thank you so much sir,
Really appreciate your teaching.
Hi there.
Which of these is correct:
1. We had been very playful the whole of last year.
2. We have been very playful the whole of last year.
No. 1 sounds awkward to me but I can't explain it.
Thank you for your feedback.
Hi Azlina,
They are both correctly formed sentences! But which one is correct depends on the rest of the conversation or text that these sentences are a part of. Sentence 1 uses the past perfect (had been), which shows that the action occured before another past action or past time. Sentence 1 does not mention any other past action or time, but the rest of the conversation or text might do (e.g. We had been very playful the whole of last year, until I moved away.) If there is no other past action/time mentioned, there is no reason to use past perfect and sentence 1 would be incorrect.
Sentence 2 uses present perfect (have been very playful), which is correct if this action has some kind of perceived relevance to the current topic of conversation. Otherwise, another option to consider is the past simple: We were very playful ... .
As mentioned above, the choice of verb tense really depends on the relationship between this action and other actions in the rest of the conversation/text! I hope that helps.
Jonathan
LearnEnglish team
I had to choose this grammar point (Past perfect), but I have questions about the use of the past continuous/progressive tense in the following sentence: "I was working on a project for six months."
Question 1: Can we rewrite the sentence as "I was working on a six-month project"?
Question 2: Does the sentence have a meaning similar (apart from the aspect (simple vs. cont./progressive)) to "I worked on a project for six months"?
Question 3: Is the sentence another way of saying (depending on the context in which it is used) "I had been working on a project for six months"?
I hope my questions are clear enough. Thank you very much in advance.