When to use the past perfect tense

ESL students often find it difficult to use the past perfect tense correctly. It is easy to construct past perfect tense forms. You just need to put had before the past participle form of the verb. However, many students don't know exactly when the past perfect tense should be used.

In this lesson, I will try to answer some of the questions you have about the correct use of the past perfect tense.

Both simple past and past perfect tenses are used to talk about finished actions and events. However, there is an important difference between them. The past perfect tense is used to indicate that an action was completed before another action commenced in the past.

We do not use the past perfect tense to simply state that something happened some time ago. That idea is always expressed using the simple past tense.

Compare:

Here the past perfect tense is used to indicate that the letter was written before it was posted. Of course, it is commonsense and the use of the past perfect tense is optional in this case.

Now read the following pair of sentences.

In this case, mother waited until father arrived and then cooked dinner.

In this case, mother had already finished cooking by the time father arrived.

In this case she waited until her boss arrived and then started working on that report.

In this case, she had already started working on that report by the time her boss arrived.

In conditional sentences, the past perfect tense is commonly used to talk about unreal or imaginary situations. In grammars, these are called Third Conditional sentences. Note that here we use the past perfect tense in the if-clause and would have + past participle in the result clause.

Note that been is the past participle form of be.

Sections in this article

Nouns
Plural Nouns
Formation of plurals
Compound nouns and their plurals
Irregular plurals
Possessive Nouns
Nouns that always require a plural verb

See also

Adverb clauses
Adjective clauses
Noun clauses
Transformation of sentences

See also

Common mistakes in the use of nouns
Common mistakes in the use of nouns | Exercise 1
Common mistakes in the use of nouns | Exercise 2
Common mistakes in the use of nouns | Exercise 3

More CBSE English Grammar worksheets

Passive voice worksheet | Simple past tense
Passive voice worksheet | Past continuous tense
Passive voice worksheet | Simple future tense
Passive voice worksheet | Future perfect tense

 

Recent Posts

Grammar Worksheets

English Grammar

Business English

Practical English Usage

English Vocabulary

English Speaking

Class 10 Grammar Worksheets

Class 9 Grammar Worksheets

Class 8 Grammar Worksheets

Class 7 Grammar Worksheets

Class 6 Grammar Worksheets

Class 5 Grammar Worksheets

Class 4 Grammar Worksheets

Class 3 Grammar Worksheets

Class 2 Grammar Worksheets

Kerala Syllabus

Enter your email address to receive our lessons in your inbox:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Vocabulary | Speaking | Exams | Practical English Usage | English Writing | Grammar Worksheets

All Rights Reserved perfectyourenglish.com