The Grammaring Guide to English Grammar with Exercises

Past perfect

Form: past perfect

Past perfect for actions completed before a point in the past

Past perfect with FOR

Past perfect with superlative forms of adjectives

Form: past perfect

HAD + PAST PARTICIPLE

The past perfect is formed with had + the past participle form of the verb.

Affirmative

Subject

Auxiliary

Verb (past participle)

I

had

arrived

by then.

You

He/She/It

We

You

They

The following contracted forms are often used in spoken and in informal written language:

I had »

I'd

you had »

you'd

he/she/it had »

he'd/she'd/it'd

we had »

we'd

you had »

you'd

they had

»

they'd

Negative

Subject

Auxiliary

not

Verb (past participle)

I

had

not

arrived

by then.

You

He/She/It

We

You

They

The contracted form hadn't is often used instead of had not in spoken and in informal written language.

Interrogative

(Question word)

Auxiliary

Subject

Verb (past participle)

(How)

had

I

arrived

by then?

you

he/she/it

we

you

they

Related topics:

The forms of the participle

Subject-auxiliary inversion in questions

Appendix: irregular verb forms

Past perfect for actions completed before a point in the past

The past perfect tense is used to express that an action was completed before a point in time in the past. This point can be implied or expressed with a time expression or a clause with a verb in the past simple tense:

They

had

all

arrived

by 10 o'clock.

When he tried to stand up, he realised he

had broken

his ankle.

Contrary to a common misunderstanding, the past perfect does not express that something happened a very long time ago. What it expresses is not how long ago an event happened but rather that it happened earlier than something else:

Julius Caesar

attacked

Britain in 54 BC.

(This was quite a long time ago; still, the past simple tense is used here.)

When I got home, they

had

already

eaten

everything in the house.

(Maybe this only happened yesterday, but the point is that the eating happened before my arrival.)

Expressions which are often used with the past perfect tense: by, till, until, before, when, by the time, no sooner, hardly, scarcely, barely.

Danny

had

never

seen

a real cow

till

I showed him one last Friday.

He didn't leave

until

he

had talked

with the boss.

By the time

she got to the theatre, the play

had

already

begun

.

I

had no sooner got

home than the telephone rang.

I

had hardly/barely/scarcely fallen asleep

when there was an earthquake.

Quotes:

I had been told that the training procedure with cats was difficult. It's not. Mine had me trained in two days. - Bill Dana

Related topics:

Present perfect for past events

Future perfect for actions completed before a point in the future

HARDLY, SCARCELY, BARELY, NO SOONER

Past perfect with FOR

The preposition for is used with the past perfect tense to express that something started before a point in time in the past and was still true at that point:

When they got married, they

had

already

been

together for three years.

Related topics:

Present perfect with FOR and SINCE

Future perfect with FOR

Past perfect with superlative forms of adjectives

The past perfect is used with superlative forms of adjectives to express emphasis:

It was the strangest piece of music I

had

ever

heard

.

Jill was the most beautiful girl John

had

ever

met

.

The second sentence above implies that until that time John had never met such a beautiful girl, but since then perhaps he has. If, however, John hasn't met anybody like Jill since then, the present perfect is used instead of the past perfect:

Jill was the most beautiful girl John

has

ever

met

.

Related topics:

Present perfect with superlative forms of adjectives