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
Hello Keiko,
I agree that 1 doesn't work and I like your suggested revision of it.
I think 2 is OK. The teacher read the first couple of essays and then realised that the marking would take a long time.
I agree with what you say about 3.
Hope this helps.
Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Hello,
I got this sentence from a book that I'm reading, " He had been crippled as a child" . Does this sentence imply that He started to be crippled when He was a child and it lasted until a specific time in the past?
Hello Khangvo2812,
This is a past perfect verb in the passive voice that refers to the specific event after which the person in question was disabled.
This is a fairly typical use of the verb 'cripple', though FYI nowadays people tend to use 'disable' instead of 'cripple', which can have a negative connotation for some people.
Unless there is some other suggestion that this person is no longer disabled, I'd understand this to be the condition of the person in question throughout their life.
Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Good day sir
I have yet another doubt.
I ____ working all afternoon and have just finished the assignment. Which one should I use had been or have been?
Thank you.
Hello drbindurekab,
As it stands there is no reason to use the past perfect here so 'have been working' is the best option. In order to use 'had been working' you would need another past time to act as a reference point and there is none given here.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello,
If I understand the idea correctly, Past Perfect and Past Simple work like this:
- Before she got acquainted with her psycologist, she had believed that she didn't have any psychological problems. (believing and having are at the same time)
- Before we had a conversation yesterday, I had believed that the company had been founded by his father, but actually it had been his grandfather who started the business. (founding before believing, being and starting are at the same time)
But, what happens when we don't have subordinate clauses?
- Not so long ago, John had a prestigious job at Google, but all of a sudden his project was closed, and he was made redundant. He really liked the USA and his place in Palo Alto, but when his career took a heavy hit, the situation got him thinking about coming back to Canada and trying to open his own business there. To make sure that he could sever his ties with California, he decided to give himself one last chance. Before leaving the country, he had sent his CV to a few big companies, but his phone stubbornly refused to ring.
Can I use Past Perfect and Past Simple in the last sentence together? 'he had sent his CV to a few big companies, but his phone stubbornly refused to ring' - is a compound sentence with two independent clauses. My idea is to use Past Perfect to emphasize a completed action before another action in the past (leaving the country). Can it be done by means of Past Perfect? Or should I use Past Simple and agree this action with the tenses in the first two sentences?
Thank you
Hello Tony,
That looks absolutely fine to me. The verb forms here relate to one another rather than to the broader context, so 'had sent' is fixed in time by '...before leaving the country', not by all the actions earlier in the paragraph. The last action described ('...refused to ring') suggests that he is still waiting for the phone to ring - i.e. this action takes us up to the present in a narrative sense. The past perfect here would make it clear that the chances of his phone ringing have passed.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Thank you, Peter. Now it's clear.
Greetings sir,
I often get confused with the usage of past perfect and present perfect when words like 'since' and 'for' come in a sentence. Please do clarify my doubt.
Thank you.
Hello drbindurekab,
We use for with a period of time: for six weeks, for an hour, for twenty minutes.
We use since with a point in time: since two days ago, since Thursday, since 6.00.
You can read more about this on this page:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/for-or-since
When used with perfect forms these words tell us how long or from which moment an action takes place. The present perfect describes an action continuing up to the present and the past perfect describes an action continuing up to another point in the past:
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team