Intro

If I had know how nice the weather would be, I would have brought my bathing suit. In this lecture we will learn how to use the past perfect tense.

Lecture

Before my father moved to America, he had never met a foreigner. In this lesson we will learn how to use the past perfect tense. Before we begin let’s look at some more examples:

Before we bought our house, we had looked at over 20 other houses.

My father started singing professionally in 1950. Before that he had worked as an engineer.

The past perfect is used to talk about past actions before another past action or past time, as in the examples above. It can also be used to speculate about past actions. For instance:

If we had known how cold it is, we wouldn’t have come.

Had they known how expensive Paris is, they would have brought more money.

The past perfect is formed with /had/ followed by the past participle and it is the same for all subjects. Let’s look at some more examples of the past perfect in the positive form:

I had paid for the hotel when I saw my old friend in the lobby.

She had waited fifteen minutes when I came.

Here are some examples in the negative form:

Before their father took them to a cinema in 1955, they hadn’t seen a movie.

We hadn’t even arrived at the airport when our plane took off.

In this lesson we learned how to use the past perfect tense. Now go on to practice these examples on your own and then try the activities below:

Quiz A:

1.If I ____(know) how expensive it is , I would have ordered less.

2.I____(have) even given my answer when he told me I was wrong.

3.I____(have) left the restaurant when I ran into him.

Answer: 1. had known 2. hadn’t 3.had

How do we talk about one action that occurs before another? We use the past perfect tense.

We use the past perfect tense to show that one action occurred before another action in the past. We use the past perfect tense with the action which took place first.

Rule1

If the order of the action is clear through the use of /before/ or /after, it is not necessary to use the past perfect. Use two simple past tense verbs.

Example1

Juan graduated from college after he passed his exams.

Juan started his job at Dean Witter after he graduated from college.

Rule2

Use the past perfect for an action if the order is unclear.

Example 2

Juan had finished college when he met Emma.

Juan had been married for a year when he started a new job.

Rule 3

To indicate the first of two actions, we can use /because/. The first action will appear in the clause immediately after /because/.

Example 3

Juan took the job at Dean Witter because he had heard good things about the company.

Rule 4

To indicate the second of two actions, we can use /by the time/ or/when/.

Example4

By the time he took employment at Dean Witter, Juan had been married for a year.

Juan had been to Paris five times when he first saw the Eiffel Tower.

Rule5

The past perfect is often used for reported speech.

Example 5

Juan said that he had studied French at college.

Quiz B

Use after, because, before, by the time, or when in the following sentences.

1.____I started college, I had moved into my own apartment.

2. We moved in the apartment on May 1 ____ we had agreed to rent it the month before.

3.____we had first looked at three cramped apartments. We decided to rent a big townhouse.

4.____ I became a vegetarian, I ate meat.

5.____she moved into the house, she lived with her parents.

6. Carrie decided to marry Peter ___ she had dated him for 5 years.

7.____ Pico lyer wrote his first book, he traveled around the world.

8.____ Jamie had first gone to Venice to study, she now spoke Italian.

9.____Picasso was 70, he had become a famous painter.

10. The manager made the appointment ___ he had checked his calendar.

Answer: 1.By the time 2.because 3. Because 4.Before 5. Before 6.when 7.Before 8.Because 9.By the time 10.when