Past Perfect

When do we use it:

When we want to describe an action that happened before another
action in the past.

Structure:

Affirmative

Example: I had driven my car before I went home.

Interrogative

Example: Had I driven my car before I went home?

Negative

Example: I hadn’t driven my car before I went home.

If you create a time line for past perfect, it will be like this:

To drive the car To go home Present

Attention: The first action will always be in the Past Perfect. The
second one, however, will come in the Simple Past. The most common
adverb of time used in Past Perfect is before. The others are:
already, until, already... by, after, just.

If – clauses

When do we use it:

Every time there is a condition for something to happen.
Ex: If I go to the school, I will study more.

There are four types of conditional sentences in English.

1) Zero conditional

Used only for facts and universal truths.

Structure: Simple Present Simple Present

Ex: If you don’t eat, you die.

2) First conditional

Used when there is a high probability of something to

happen.

Structure: Simple Present Future Will

Ex: If we drink alcohol, we will not drive.

3) Second conditional

Used when we want to create an hypothesis about some

subject. We imagine a situation and its consequences.

Structure: Simple past Would + verb

(bare infinitive)

Ex: If I hit the lottery, I would buy a new house.

4) Third conditional

Used when we think about a situation that might have

happened in the past and its possible consequences in the
past.

Structure: Past Perfect Would + have/has +Verb

(past part)

Ex: If you had called, I would have gone to the party.

Attention: There is another kind of conditional form in

English, the fifth type, but you’ll see it in the future, ok?!

Good studies!!!