past perfect tense

Past perfect

What is past perfect?

• The past perfect is a verb tense used to talk about actions that were completed before some point in the past.

When do we use past perfect?

• The past perfect tense is for talking about something that happened before something else. Imagine waking up one morning and stepping outside to grab the newspaper. On your way back in, you notice a mysterious message scrawled across your front door: Tootles was here. When you’re telling this story to your friends later, how would you describe this moment? You might say something like:

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• I turned back to the house and saw that some someone named Tootles had defaced my front door!

Explanation about the last example

• In addition to feeling indignant on your behalf, your friends will also be able to understand that Tootles graffitied the door at some point in the past before the moment this morning when you saw his handiwork, because you used the past perfect tense to describe the misdeed.

Past perfect formula

• The formula for the past perfect tense is had + [past participle]. It doesn’t matter if the subject is singular or plural; the formula doesn’t change.

Simple past vs Past Perfect

• So what’s the difference between past perfect and simple past? When you’re talking about some point in the past and want to reference an event that happened even earlier, using the past perfect allows you to convey the sequence of the events. It’s also clearer and more specific. Consider the difference between these two sentences:
• EX. We were relieved that Tootles used washable paint. We were relieved that Tootles had used washable paint.

When not to use Past Perfect

• Don’t use the past perfect when you’re not trying to convey some sequence of events. If your friends asked what you did after you discovered the graffiti, they would be confused if you said:
• I had cleaned it off the door.
• They’d likely be wondering what happened next because using the past perfect implies that your action of cleaning the door occurred before something else happened, but you don’t say what that something else is.

Negative Sentences

• Making the past perfect negative is simple! Just insert not between had and [past participle].
• We looked for witnesses, but the neighbors had not seen Tootles in the act. If Tootles had not included his own name in the message, we would have no idea who was behind it.
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Questions in Past Perfect

• The formula for asking a question in the past perfect tense is had + [subject] + [past participle].
• Had Tootles caused trouble in other neighborhoods before he struck ours?
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