Past perfect
Use the past perfect (had + past participle) when you are already talking about the past and need to show that something happened earlier than that.
How it works
- Form: had + past participle, the same for every person: I had left, she had left.
- Use it to go further back in a past story: When we got to the cinema, the film had started.
- Common with by the time, already, before, never … before and because.
- Compare: When I arrived, she left (she left after I came). When I arrived, she had left (she was already gone).
- With after and before the order is already clear, so the past simple is also fine: After I finished, I went home.
- Do not use it just because something happened long ago. One finished past event takes the past simple.
Examples
By the time I got to the station, the last train had left.
She was nervous because she had never spoken in public before.
I didn't recognise him at first. He had lost a lot of weight.
When we arrived, everyone had already eaten.
He realised he had left his laptop in the taxi.
Common mistakes
Wrong: I
hadgraduated from university in 2015.Right: I graduated from university in 2015.
Wrong: When I came home, my mum
cooked dinner already.Right: When I came home, my mum had already cooked dinner.
Wrong: She told me she had
forgetmy birthday.Right: She told me she had forgotten my birthday.
Practice
1 of 14Fill the gap.
Level: EGP Verbs (past perfect simple): a B1 point, used mainly to show that one past event came before another, often with when, because, by the time and already. Written for Gloss.