The past perfect simple
Introduction
He suddenly realised that he'd forgotten about the meeting.
Definition
The past perfect simple is used to talk about actions and activities which occurred sometime before a specified point in the past.
Construction
affirmative: subject + 'had' + past participle
I'd sent an email.
negative: subject + 'had' + 'not'+ past participle
I hadn't sent an email.
interrogative: 'had' + subject + past participle
Had you sent an email?
Uses
Usually, when we tell a story in the past, we use the past simple and past continuous but if we want to mention something which happened before the main narrative, we use the past perfect.
For example, this is a story of something that happened two months ago, so all events before that are in the past perfect:
"I met Sandra for lunch a couple of months ago."
"Where did you go?"
"To that new Italian place in the High Street. The food was amazing and it was good to catch up - I hadn't seen her for two years."
"And how was she?"
"Really happy. She'd been planning a trip to Japan. She'd decided which cities to visit and had just registered for a Japanese course."
"Had she booked her flights?"
"No she was still comparing prices and hadn't decided which airline to go with."
The past perfect simple is particularly useful in the following situations:
| Situation | Examples |
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To talk about life experiences before and related to a past event. It does not matter exactly when the experience happened before the main narrative.
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"I went to Japan on business last month." "Had you been to Japan before?" "No I hadn't but I'd met a lot of Japanese people in my job so I was quite familiar with the culture." |
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To talk about actions in a specific period, including someone's life. The period may be finished now but was unfinished at a point in the past. There is a suggestion that the situation might have changed after the point in the past.
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I hadn't seen him much in the previous few years.
The U.K. had had thirty-seven Prime Ministers before a female one was elected.
He'd written four books by the time he was twenty.
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To explain something at a point in the past. It often answers the question, 'why?', and we may have been able to see a result in the past.
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I couldn't read it because I'd lost my glasses.
"Why were you so hot when you arrived?" "I'd run all the way there."
I'd spilt milk all over the floor so I had to clear it up quickly before the guests arrived.
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To report progress by a specific point in the past - talking about what had and had not been done.
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There was a meeting last Friday - by Thursday, I'd booked a room and sent an email to everyone with the details but I hadn't written the agenda or ordered the lunch.
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When something started in the past and continued until a later point in the past, we use the past perfect continuous but the past perfect simple can also be used as an alternative with certain verbs, including 'to live', 'to work', 'to teach' and 'to manage'.
There is a suggestion of permanence similar to the difference between the present simple and present continuous.
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I'd lived in that house for thirty years when I decided to move.
I'd always worked for a big company before starting this job.
She'd taught English for 20 years before she had a change of career and became a gardener.
He'd managed the sales department since 1985 before retiring in 2010.
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With stative verbs when we would usually use the past perfect continuous.
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I'd known him for a long time.
I'd only had the car since Christmas but it broke down.
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Words and expressions commonly used with the past perfect simple
1. Just and already
These are often used in the same way as in the present perfect simple. For example:
When I arrived, he'd already left.
When I saw him, he'd just returned from his trip to Japan.
2. By
We often use the word 'by' when we want to specify a time at or before which something was done or achieved. For example:
By 5 o'clock, I'd drunk seven cups of coffee and sent 45 emails but I hadn't started writing the weekly report.
She'd had four jobs by the time she was 30.
We drove from Scotland to Italy last summer. By the end of the holiday, we'd visited six countries, stayed in three hotels and spoken four different languages.
3. How long..? For/since
In those situations when we use the past perfect simple as an alternative to the continuous, we can ask questions using 'How long..?'
How long had they been married?
How long had you lived in London?
We can specify duration with either 'for' or 'since'. We use 'for' with a period of time and 'since' with a specific point in the past.
They'd been married for two years.
I'd lived in London since 2008.
Some more examples:
| For | Since |
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five minutes two hours days three weeks a long time
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the day/week/month/year before the previous day/week/month/year October 1974 I was a child
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Note that in negative sentences with 'for' or 'since', there are different possible meanings between the past perfect simple and the past perfect continuous. The past perfect continuous is less likely to be heard. For example:
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I hadn't been to the theatre for ages - so I was really happy when Susan invited me to see Phantom of the Opera. [There was a long time between my last visit and Susan's invitation.] |
I hadn't been going to the theatre for ages when I decided to start going again. [I used to go to the theatre regularly, then I didn't go for a long time and then I started going again. This structure is much less likely to be heard than the simple form.] |
| I hadn't spoken to Patty since Monday - she was on a business trip until Thursday. [We had no contact between Monday and Thursday.] | I hadn't been speaking to Patty since Monday but she apologised on Thursday and everything is OK now. [When we 'are not speaking to someone', it means we are deliberately not communicating because of an argument. So this means that between Monday and Thursday, we chose not to have any contact.] |
Note that these words and expressions can also be used with some other tenses.
