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! Can you help me check if the answers I’ve given in this exercise are correct? I have to choose the correct tense of the verb in parenthesis. It could be any tense. Some of them, I think, require a past perfect, but I’m not sure.
"I (arrive) arrived home last night to find that my house (flood) had flooded. Someone (forget) had forgotten (turn) to turn off the bathroom tap, and water (pour) was pouring out the whole day. Before (phone) phoning the plumber I checked (see) to see that the electricity supply was turned off, because I didn’t want there (be) to be a fire as well as a flood."
Hello Teresa,
Your answers are good, though I would probably say 'Someone forgot to turn off the tap and water had been pouring out ...'. But it kind of depends on how you choose to describe the situation.
Hope this helps.
Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Hello. Can I mix the simple past and past perfect in this sentence? Can the past perfect be used if I want to describe the completion of a period of time after a single action in the past?
- Katerina Panos got married to Darwin Deason in 2008, they had spent 11 years together and got divorced in 2019.
#1 they got married;
#2 they had spent together 11 years;
#3 they got divorced.
Thank you
Hello Tony_M,
I don't think the past perfect works here. The problem is the conjunction 'and' which suggests a sequence of events. If you replace it with 'when' or 'by the time' then the sentence is clearer and more logical. With the conjunction 'and' I think you need the past simple (they spent) rather than the past perfect.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Thank you, Peter.
What about this one?
- Katerina Panos got married to Darwin Deason in 2008, and they'd spent 11 years together by the time they divorced in 2019.
Hello again Tony,
That's perfectly fine.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Thank you very much.
Hello,
In the sentence Tim visited his parents before he went shopping could we also say Tim had visited or had been visiting his parents before he went shopping as the action of visiting happened before that of going shopping?
Thanks
Hello Cilicia,
Yes, that is possible and correct, though the sentence with past simple is also correct.
We typically use the past perfect when the order of events is important or because we want to emphasise it in some way. We might use this sentence (with the past perfect form) to begin a story, for example, when we are setting the scene for something that happened after he left his parents' house and before he arrived at the shops.
Best wishes,
Kirk
LearnEnglish team
Hello,
It still hadn't rained at the beginning of May.
It still didn't rain at the beginning of May.
Can both sentences be grammatically correct?