Past Perfect Simple Tense

Past Perfect Simple

had + v3

Poll

Do you know what v3 (past participle) is?

• Yes

• No

What is the use of Past Perfect?

We use "past perfect" to say that one action happened before another past action.

Let's say:

1) I have a lesson on Zoom at 10:30.

2) I join the link at 10:35, after the lesson starts.

The lesson had started when I clicked on the link.

You can see that there are two things that happened in the past, but one happened before the other.

Why can't we just use Simple Past for both actions?

Look at these examples:

1) The lesson started when I clicked on the link.

In this example, it means that they happened at the same time, or we don't know which happened first.

2) The lesson had started when I clicked on the link.

In this example, we know which action happened before the other.

Multiple Choice

Let's try to answer one question. (past perfect = had + v3)

v1>v2>v3

go>went>gone

leave>left>left

When I ________ (go) to the party, everybody ________ (leave). I was too late.

• went / left

• had gone / had left

• had gone / left

• went / had left

The answer is:

When I went to the party, everybody had left. I was too late.

Well let's look at these two sentences:

1) When I went to the party, everybody left.

This means, nobody likes you, and they left when they saw you.

2) When I went to the party, everybody had left.

This means, nobody was there when you went there.

They were not there when you arrived.

Poll

Do you have any questions? You will start answering questions after this slide.

• Yes, I want to ask a question

• No, I think I get it

Fill in the Blank

1) When I arrived at the cinema, the film ___________ (end). I was the only one there.

Multiple Choice

2) The grass was yellow because it ___________ (not / rain) all summer.

• hadn't rained

• didn't rain

Multiple Choice

3) We went to a restaurant because my friends _________ (not / eat) anything.

eat>ate>eaten

• hadn't eaten

• didn't eat

Fill in the Blank

4) I couldn't go into the concert because I _______ (forget) my ticket at home.

Multiple Choice

5) After Fred _____ (spend) his holiday in Italy, he _____ (want) to learn Italian.

spend>spent>spent

There are two actions

1) Spending his holiday in Italy

2) Wanting to learn Italian

which one happened first? use past perfect (had +v3) for that action

• spent / had wanted

• had spent / wanted

Can you just say "after he spent, he wanted to..."?

Yes, you can simply say:

After he spent his holiday in Italy, he wanted to learn Italian.

When we use after/before, it helps us understand which action happened first/later.

Poll

Do you have any questions?

• Of course, this is new for me, so I need to ask something.

• No, I am the smartest person in the world.