The Past Perfect Tense in English: Formula and Illustrated Exercises

1. What is the Past Perfect Tense?

The Past Perfect Tense is a verb tense in English, used to describe an action that had been completed before a certain point in the past or another action in the past.

2. How to Use the Past Perfect Tense

The past perfect tense serves four primary purposes:
1. Describing two actions occurring in the past: the action that happened first uses the past perfect tense, while the subsequent action uses the simple past tense.
Ex: I had finished my homework before I went to bed.
(The action of finishing homework occurred first, hence the past perfect tense is used; the action of going to bed happened afterward, so the simple past tense is used.)
2. Expressing a past action that was a prerequisite for another action:
Ex: If she had studied harder, she would have passed the exam.
(Studying hard was a prerequisite for passing the exam.)
3. Indicating a past action that occurred over a period of time before another time reference point:
Ex: He had lived in Japan for five years before he moved back to the United States.
(The action of living in Japan for five years occurred before another time reference point, which is moving back to the United States.)
4. Used in type 3 conditional sentences to talk about an event that couldn't have happened in the past:
Ex: If I had won the lottery, I would have traveled around the world.
(Winning the lottery was not possible, hence the use of past perfect tense.)
 

3. Formula for the past perfect tense

The formula for the past perfect tense is considered the easiest and most memorable when learning tenses in English. It follows the general formula 'had + past participle'. Essentially, this formula represents the past tense of the present perfect tense 'have/has + past participle' (where 'have/has' becomes 'had' in the past). The auxiliary verb 'had' is used regardless of the subject's number (singular or plural). The main challenge lies in memorizing irregular verbs in their past participle form, but it mirrors what we've already learned in the present perfect tense.
- Affirmative: S + had + past participle
- Negative: S + had + not + past participle
- Interrogative: Had + S + past participle?
Ex: She had finished her work before the meeting started.
She hadn't finished her work before the meeting started.
Had she finished her work before the meeting started?

4. Identifying signs of the past perfect tense

There are three distinct ways to identify the past perfect tense:
- Based on identifying words such as: until then, before, after, by the time, for, as soon as, ...

5. Exercise on the past perfect tense

Below, Mytour will present you with some exercises to practice the concepts related to the past perfect tense. After completing the exercises, you can check the answers below to assess your accuracy and identify any weaknesses that need improvement!

Hopefully with the guidance provided above, you now have a thorough understanding of all concepts related to the past perfect tense. Learning will be highly effective when you can apply and compare the formula of this tense with others, such as the present perfect and past perfect tenses. From there, you will not only memorize the formula and usage but also develop logical thinking during the learning process. Check out more about the Past Perfect Continuous Tense in English here.