Learn How to Use Past Perfect Tense Correctly

by | Apr 12, 2024 | Verb Tenses

Use of Past Perfect Tense with examples and explanation
How to use past perfect tense correctly?

Past perfect tense is a verb tense that is used to talk about things that happened in the past up until a certain point. For instance, he worked at the company for 10 years before moving abroad. 

In this article, you will learn how to use past perfect tense correctly in English. You will also learn what is past perfect tence, when to use it, how to make sentences, when not to use this tense, and lastly you will find real life example sentence of past perfect tense in English. 

Let’s get started without further delay!

What is Past Perfect Tense?

Past perfect tense is used to talk about an event that happened in the past 

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We use the past perfect simple (had + past participle) to talk about time up to a certain point in the past.

Look at these examples to see how the past perfect is used.

Examples:

  • He had worked at the store before moving to USA.
  • He had played cricket as a child.
  • He had cooked food before going to bed. 
  • She had cleaned house before taking nap.

How to Make Past Perfect Tense 

The past perfect tense formula is Subject + Had + Past Participle. Past participle is a third form of the verb which is usually made by adding -ed at the end of the base verb. However, irregular verbs have different form because they do not follow the rule of adding -ed at the end of the base verb. We must use had + past participle whether the subject is singular or plural.

Past Perfect Tense Formula

Subject + had + past participle + Object

Why Do We Use Past Perfect Tense?

We use past perfect only when a certain thing happened in the past before another event happened. The order of the sentence does not matter in relation to order of the events.

Examples:

  • When the guest arrived, she had prepared food.
  • He had applied for the job before the deadline approached.
  • They had left before I arrived home.

When to Use Past Perfect Tense

We use past perfect only when a certain thing happened in the past before another event happened. The order of the sentence does not matter in relation to order of the events.

Examples:

  • When the guest arrived, she had prepared food.
  • He had applied for the job before the deadline approached.
  • They had left before I arrived home.

How to Make Past Perfect Tense

To make past perfect sentences, we use had + past participle after the subject. If there is object, then the object comes at the end. take a look at the structure of the sentence using past perfect tense. The construction of the sentence looks like this:

Subject + had + past participle.

  • He had left when I reached home. 
  • She had cooked before the kids came from school.
  • They had played before the break finished.

The object will come after had+past participle. the construction of the sentence will look like this:

Subject + had + past participle + object.

  • He had gone to the store before 7 o’clock.
  • She had cooked food when the kids arrived.
  • They had played soccer when the break finished.

Past Perfect Tense Formula

The structural formula of past perfect tense is:

Subject + had + Past Participle + Object

Pronouns

We use had with first, second, and third person pronouns. It does not matter whether the subject is singular or plural, we use had with the subject.

Examples:

  • She had cooked food before leaving.
  • They had played for ten years before retirement.

Time up to a point in the past

We use past perfect tense to talk about something that happened before a certain thing happened. There must be two events.

  • She’d published her first poem by the time she was eight.
  • We’d finished all the water before we were halfway up the mountain.
  • Had the parcel arrived when you called yesterday?

Must be two events

We use past perfect tense to talk about something that happened before a certain thing happened. There must be two events. 

  • When the police arrived, the thief had escaped.

It doesn’t matter in which order we say the two events. The following sentence has the same meaning.

  • The thief had escaped when the police arrived.

If there is only a single event, we don’t use the past perfect, even if it happened a long time ago.

  • The Romans had spoken Latin. [Incorrect]
  • The Romans spoke Latin. [Correct]

It doesn’t matter in which order we say the two events. The following sentence has the same meaning.

Order of events

It does not matter whether we change the order of the event or not. 

Examples:

  • She had cooked food before the guests arrived.
  • They had finished their job before lunch time.
  • I

Past perfect after before

We can also use before+past perfect to show that an action was not done or was incomplete when the past simple action happend.

  • They left before I’d spoken to them.
  • Sadly, the author died before he’d finished the series.

Past perfect with adverbs

We often use the 

  • I called his office but he’d already left.
  • It sill hadn’t rained at the beginning of May.
  • I went to visit her when she’d just moved to Berlin.
  • It was the most beautiful photo I’d ever seen.
  • Had you ever visited London when you moved there?
  • I’d never met anyone from California before I met Jim.

Past perfect with Just

Just is used with the past perfect to refer to an even that was only a shot time earlier than before now. for example

  • The train had just left when i arrived at the station.
  • She had just left the room when the police arrived.
  • I had just put the washing out when it started to rain.

Positive Sentences of Past Perfect Tense

To make negative sentences of past perfect, we use had not+ past participle after the subject. 

Examples:

  • He had not gone to the store before noon. 
  • She had not cooked food for dinner before leaving. 
  • They had not participated in the game 

Negative Sentences of Past Perfect Tense

We use had not+ past participle after the subject to make negative sentences of past perfect.

Examples:

  • He had not gone to the store before noon. 
  • She had not cooked food for dinner before leaving. 
  • They had not participated in the game 

You can also use contractions of hadn’t instead of had not in the sentence. 

  • He hadn’t gone to the store before noon.
  • She hadn’t cooked food for dinner before leaving.
  • They hadn’t participated in the game

Common regular verbs in the past perfect tense

Infinitive
Past Perfect
to ask
had asked
to work
had worked
to call
had called
to use
had used

Common irregualr vebrs in the past perfect tense

Infinitive
Past Perfect
to be
had been
to have
had had
to do
had done
to say
had said
to get
had gotten
to make
had made
to go
had gone
to take
had taken
to see
had seen
to come
had come

Question Sentences of Past Perfect Tense

To make question sentences of past perfect tense, we use had at the beging of the sentence followed by subject and past participle. The formula for asking a question in the past perfect tense is:

 had + subject + past participle.

Examples:

  • Had she cooked food before going to bed?
  • Had the guest arrived?
  • Had they played the game before sleeping?

Wh-Questions

Wh-words like what, why, when, where, and who come at the beginning of the sentence. See the following examples:

  • Why had she cooked food before going to bed?
  • Why had the guest arrived?
  • Where had they played the game before sleeping?

Verb Conjugation in Past Perfect Tense

Past Perfect Tense
Exaple Sentence
Positive
She had gone.
Negative
She hadn't gone.
Interrogative
Had she gone?
Interrogative Netagive
Hadn't she gone?

Using Question words in past perfect tense

If there is any question word like what, where, who, etc., then it must come at the beginning of the sentence followed by had+subject+past participle. See the following examples;

  • What had he done before moving to the city?
  • Where had he gone for last three years?
  • Why had he left for job?

When Not to Use Past Perfect Tense

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Example Sentences of Past Perfect Tense

  • He had worked hard before taking the exam.
  • She had read 20 books.
  • They had visited many countries in the last 20 years.
  • They had watched movie before going to bed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some of the most frequently asked question about past perfect tense and its use in English grammar.

What is past perfect tense?

The past perfect tense is a verb tense used to talk about something that happened in the past and ended at a certain point before another event occurred.

How to use past perfect tense?

To use the past perfect tense, we use had + past participle with the subject. There must be two events in the sentence to use the past perfect. If there is only one event, we simply use past simple.

What is the difference between past tense and past perfect tense?

Past tense describes an action or event that occurred at a specific time in the past, whereas past perfect tense describes an action or event that happened before another action or event in the past.

I hope this article helped you understand past perfect tense and how to use it in the English language. You may also want to learn about past tenses in English.

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