Past Perfect Flashcards
Past Perfect:
had + V3/Ved (past participle)
or
‘d + V3/Ved
Sometimes we talk about something that happened in the past:
Sam arrived at the party.
This is is the starting point of the story. Then, if we want to talk about things that happened before this time, we use the past perfect:
When Sarah arrived at the party, Paul had already gone home.
When we got home last night, we found that somebody had broken into the flat.
Karen didn’t want to come to the cinema with us because she had already seen the film.
At first I thought I’d done the right thing, but I soon realised that I’d made a serious mistake.
The man sitting next to me on the plane was very nervous. He hadn’t flown before. / He
had never flown before.
Past perfect simple is similar to present perfect simple and is used with:
1) ever, never, in my life, how many times;
2) yet. just, already. RESULT
3) before, after
4) how long, for, since
Compare:
1
Who is that woman? I’ve never seen her before.
I didn’t know who that woman was. I’d never seen her before.
2
We aren’t hungry. We’ve just had lunch.
We weren’t hungry. We’d just had lunch.
3
The house is dirty. They haven’t cleaned it for weeks.
The house was dirty. They hadn’t cleaned it for weeks.
Past perfect questions and negatives:
He had gone home.
Had he gone home?
Yes, he had.
No, he hadn’t.
He hadn’t gone home.
Why had he gone home?
Compare the past perfect simple ( I had done) and past simple (I did):
1
“Was Tom at the party when you arrived?”
No, he had already gone home.”
“Was Tom at the party when you arrived?”
“Yes, but he went home soon afterwards.”
2
Ann wasn’t at home when I phoned. She was in London.
Ann had just got home when I phoned. She had been in London.
Make sentences from the words in brackets.
You went to Jill’s house but she wasn’t there.
she / go / out
You went to Jill’s house but she wasn’t there. She had gone out.
You went back to your home town after many years. It wasn’t the same as before.
(it/change/ a lot)
It had changed a lot.
I invited Rachel to the party but she couldn’t come.
she / arrange / to do something else
She had arranged to do something else.
You went to the cinema last night. You arrived at the cinema late.
(the film / already / begin)
The film had already begun.
I was very pleased to see Tim again after such a long time.
I / not / see / him for five years
I hadn’t seen him for five years.
I offered Sue something to eat but she wasn’t hungry.
she / just / have / breakfast
She had just had breakfast.
Write sentences ending with before. Use the verb in brackets.
The man sitting next to me on the plane was very nervous. It was his first flight.
(fly)
He had never flown before.
He hadn’t flown before.
A woman walked into the room. She was a complete stranger to me.
(see)
I had never seen her before.
I hadn’t seen her before.
Simon played tennis yesterday. He wasn’t very good at it because it was his first game.
(play)
He hadn’t played before.
He had never played before.
Last year we went to Denmark. It was our first time there.
be
We had never been to Denmark before.
We hadn’t been to Denmark before.
Complete the paragraphs using the past perfect and past simple.
- We arrived at work in the morning.
- Somebody broke into the office during the night.
- We called the police.
We arrived at work in the morning and found that somebody … into the office during the night. So we … .
We arrived at work in the morning and found that somebody had broken into the office during the night. So we called the police.
