All about grammar 143
Past perfect tense: functions Function
Example
Indicates that an event or action She had played hockey before she began to play was completed before another netball. past event She lived in Singapore after she had left Australia. She fainted when she found out she had won the lottery. It was Monday before I had completed it.
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Used with the conditional ‘if’ if if’ to give reasons why an earlier action didn’t take place
If only you had mentioned it earlier, I might not have gone. If I had known about your problems, I could have helped you. If the explosion had happened earlier, more people would have been injured.
Used in reported speech when the present tense must change to past perfect
Jacque said that he had never played football. Alexis demanded to know who had scribbled on her science homework. Janet screamed that she had seen a ghost.
Used with adverbs like ‘because’ and ‘although’ to show causal relations between two past actions
I was forced to walk home yesterday, because the bus drivers had gone on strike. I didn’t feel tired although I had completed the cross-country race.
Used to express that you are disappointed in someone’s actions
I had wondered if your study habits had improved, but obviously they haven’t. I had hoped that you could accompany me, but you seem to be too busy to spend time with your friends.
Teac he r
The government gave help to the people who had lost their homes in the hurricane. (Note that the simple past verb, ‘gave’, is used for the past event and the past perfect verb ‘had lost’ is used for the even earlier event.)
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Used to refer to an earlier time in the past. You use the simple past tense for past events, but if you want to refer to a time even earlier than that time, you use the past perfect.
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Past perfect tense: formation
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To form the past perfect tense, you add a past participle to ‘had’ or ‘has’; for example: I had forgotten how much I enjoy playing golf. Check the section on past participles (page 131) to see how they are formed
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The past perfect tense is often used with time markers such as: ‘before’, ‘when’ and ‘after’.
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Contractions can be used in informal writing and speaking. For example: They’d ’d already arrived. She’d hoped he would not be early.
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When used as a conditional, a past perfect sentence may include ‘could have’, ‘would have’ and ‘might have’; for example: I could have helped you if you had told me about it.
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