English Grammar: Past Perfect Tense

 We continue to learn tenses of English verbs , and today we are going to learn  Past Perfect.
You can easily identify Perfect verbs: they always express the  finished action.

 

 

How to form Past Perfect Tense?

If you have a look at the table of verbs forms, you'll see, that  the  formula of Past Perfect is 
had V3, it   consists of   the auxiliary verb  had  ( to have in its past form)  and past participle  of the main verb  V3.

Note

• good news :1.  had is used for all subjects (in singular or plural forms)

                              2.  V3 has no changes in different types  of sentences.

I had written ./ He had written./ They had written.

They had painted./ They had not painted./ Had  they painted?

When  to use Past Perfect?

1.for an action which happened before another past action or before a stated time in the past.

He let me use his tablet after he had showed me how to use it.

They had finished the project by Monday.

 2. for the action which finished in the past whose result was visible in the past.

She was happy: her son had entered the university.

The time expressions for Past Perfect

The main time expressions you can use with Past Perfect forms are :

before, after, when, by the time, by 5o'clock