Past perfect tense in English

This chapter will discuss past perfect tense in English. This tense is used to indicate that an action in the past occurred before another action also in the past. 

Structure of the past perfect tense in English

The past perfect is formed with the past simple of the auxiliary verb 'to have' and the past participle:

to have + past participle

Have a question?

Take online language lessons with a professional teacher

1. Native & verified teachers
2. Free trial lesson
3. Learning materials included

Peter S.

Michelle T.

Sara G.

Nasipho M.

Lauren H.

Pulane M.

Chelsie Rose B.

Antonio Ángel V.

Jaqueline K.

Giulia C.

Sign up for free

Past participle of regular verbs

The past participle of regular verbs is formed by adding '-ed' to the infinitive of the verb.

• to talk - talked
• to want - wanted
• to listen - listened

Past participle of irregular verbs

The past participle of irregular verbs have different endings. Here are some examples:

• to eat - eaten
• to drink - drunk
• to run - run

How to form the past perfect tense

How the past perfect tense is formed, depends on whether the sentence is:

1. Affirmative: expresses the truth of a certain assertion.
2. Negative: expresses the falsity of a certain assertion. 
3. Interrogative: expresses a question.

1. Affirmatives

Structure: Subject + auxiliary verb 'to have' in past (had) + past participle + rest of sentence

Examples:

• I had eaten my breakfast when I left home.
• The bus had just left when they arrived at the bus stop.
• She was very tired because she had not slept well.

2. Negatives

Structure: Subject + negative form of auxiliary verb 'to have' in the past (had not) + past participle + rest of sentence

Examples:

• I had not watched this movie before.
• She had not met my sister before they went to dinner.
• They had not done their homework before they went to class.

3. Interrogatives

Structure: Auxiliary verb 'to have' in past (had) + subject + past participle + rest of sentence + question mark

Examples:

• Had you met my sister before?
• Had you watched this movie before?
• Had you done your homework before class?

Usage of the English past perfect

The past perfect tense in English is used to make clear that one event occurred before the other event in the past. A past perfect sentence usually consists of 2 actions that are described, one of which is in the past simple tense. 

Train your skills by doing the exercises below!