Past Perfect Simple
The Past Perfect Simple describes actions completed before another action in the past. It is formed with 'had' + past participle and often used with 'before' and 'after'.
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Past Perfect Simple
The past perfect is not a frequent tense, but it is a valuable one, and it lends real precision when handled well. Its formation is simple: the past simple of 'have' (had) followed by the past participle.
The affirmative consists of 'had' plus the past participle, normally formed by adding '-ed' to the infinitive, though a number of verbs have irregular participles:
| Affirmative | Contracted Affirmative |
|---|---|
| I had been | I'd been |
| you had gone | you'd gone |
| he had played | he'd played |
| she had met | she'd met |
| it had rained | it'd rained |
| we had bought | we'd bought |
| they had studied | they'd studied |
The contracted form of 'had' is 'd.
Take care not to confuse it with 'would'. 'Would' is followed by the infinitive, as in 'I'd go', whereas 'had' is followed by the past participle, as in I'd gone.
| Negative | Contracted Negative |
|---|---|
| I had not been | I hadn't been |
| you had not gone | you hadn't gone |
| he had not played | he hadn't played |
| she had not met | she hadn't met |
| it had not rained | it hadn't rained |
| we had not bought | we hadn't bought |
| they had not studied | they hadn't studied |
Questions place 'had' in front of the subject:
| Yes/No Questions |
|---|
| had I missed the bus? |
| had you visited London? |
| had he worked as a waiter before? |
| had she met Daniel? |
| had it been cold this week? |
| had we arrived too early? |
| had they studied English grammar before? |
In 'wh' questions, the question word precedes 'had':
| Wh Questions | |
|---|---|
| where had I left my umbrella? | |
| what had you done? | |
| why had he gone? | |
| where had she been? | |
| why had it rained? | |
| what had we done? | |
| where had they learned English? |
Uses of the past perfect simple
1. A completed action occurring before a second point in the past.
- When we arrived, the film had started (= first the film started, then we arrived).
2. The past perfect establishes which of two past actions came first. It is used when the narrative is already set in the past and a still earlier event needs to be mentioned, frequently in order to explain or account for what followed.
- I'd eaten dinner so I wasn't hungry.
- It had snowed in the night, so the bus didn't arrive.
3. Where the order of events is already clear, as it is after 'before' or 'after', the past perfect becomes optional.
- The film started before we arrived / the film had started before we arrived.
4. Something that began in the past and continued up to another past action or time. The past perfect expresses how long, exactly as the present perfect does, except that the action runs up to a point in the past rather than to the present. 'For + time' is usual. The past perfect continuous is also available here, which is why the simple form tends to be reserved for stative verbs.
- When he graduated, he had been in London for six years. (= He arrived in London six years before he graduated and lived there until he graduated, or even longer.)
- On the 20th of July, I'd worked here for three months.
5. To refer to what is unreal or imaginary in the past. Just as the past simple serves for unreal situations in the present, the past perfect, one step further back, serves for unreal situations in the past. It is common in the third conditional and after 'wish'.
- If I had known you were ill, I would have visited you.
- She would have passed the exam if she had studied harder.
- I wish I hadn't gone to bed so late!