Past perfect (Monica La Rosa)

The past perfect is a tense we use to refer to actions or events that took
place in the past before another action in the past
It is also often known as the past of narration, since it is typically used
when we tell stories.

Structure (Monica la Rosa)

AFFIRMATIVE: To form the affirmative put auxiliary 'had' (passed

'have') accompanied by the participle of the main verb.
subject + had + participle + rest of sentence

Examples:
They had spent the day in a park.
She had worked all day.

NEGATIVE: To form the negative we must deny the auxiliary 'had'.

Remember that 'had' acts as an Assistant, so you can deny
himself.
subject + hadn't + participle + rest of sentence

Examples:
They hadn't spent the day in a park.
She hadn't worked all day.

QUESTION: To form the question we have to invest 'had' auxiliary and

the subject.
had + subject + participle + rest of sentence?
Examples
Had they spent the day in a park?
Had she worked all day?

Contraction with Past Perfect (Stefanya)

When we use the Past Perfect in speaking, we often contract the subject
and the auxiliary verb. We also sometimes do this in informal writing:

In negative sentences, we may contract the auxiliary verb and "not":

I hadn't finished my meal.
Anthony hadn't had a day off for months.

Past Perfect Key Words (Stefanya)

Words that are common with present perfect can also be used in the
past. These include ALREADY, YET, STILL, SINCE, and FOR.

My teacher asked me for my project, but I had not finished it yet.

He introduced me to his father, and I realized had already met

him.
I ate a lot of food last night for dinner, because I hadn't eaten
anything since breakfast.
I had not seen my sister for 3 months.

Expressions of time (Valentina)

To unite prayer in Past Perfect Simple with which goes on Past Simple
conjunctions and expressions are used as when, by the time, before and
after, which already indicate what action took place in the first place.

I had washed his hands before he ate his sandwich

He ate his sandwich after I had washed his hands

In addition to those already mentioned, we can also use other temporal

expressions, such as just, never, already, until, etc.

They had just finished painting when Peter went to help them
He had already cooked the dinner when she arrived

Uses of the past perfect simple (Kat)

1. A completed action before something else in the past.

When we arrived, the film had started. (= first the film started, then later
we arrived)
2. To explain or give a reason for something in the past.
I'd eaten dinner so I wasn't hungry.
It had snowed in the night, so the bus didn't arrive.
3. Stative verbs only: something that started in the past and
continued up to another action in the past.
When he graduated, he had been in London for six years.
4. As part of the third conditional.
If I had known you were ill, I would have visited you

*1 Podemos ver este verbo contrado tambin (they'd/ she'd)

*2 Es importante recordar que los verbos irregulares tienen una forma

de participio irregular. En los verbos regulares el participio coincide con
el pasado. Compara los siguientes ejemplos:

Regular:
Irregular:

work - worked - worked

spend - spent - spent