In this article I will be talking about what the past perfect is and some examples. This article is written in a clear and simple manner using basic language that an ESL (English as Second Language) student would be able to understand.

1. What is the past perfect?

The past perfect is one of the four main tenses of the English language alongside the:

past simple

past continuous

past perfect continuous

2. Form.

The form of the past perfect is:

HAD + PAST PARTICIPLE.

The past participle is the third form of the verb in English, e.g. “eat, ate, eaten” (eaten being the past particple).

3. Uses of the past perfect.

We primarily use the past perfect to describe an action in the past that happened before another past action, or in simple terms.

“PAST PERFECT HAPPENED BEFORE PAST SIMPLE”

So here are some examples.

“She passed her exam because she had studied hard”

Spanish: “Aprobó su examen porque había estudiado mucho”

el pretérito pluscuamperfecto

French: “”Elle a réussi son examen parce qu’il avait beaucoup étudié””
Plus-que-parfait

The first action is that she studied hard and the second action is that she passed the exam, the “had” indicates that studying happened first.

Here are some more examples alongside their translations in Spanish and French (*If anybody wishes to volunteer to provide a translation in their language they are welcome to).

So this in essence is the past perfect, the fundamentals.

Here are some other things to know.

1. We can often use the past perfect and past simple, but also the past simple and past simple for the same thing, for example.

“I studied English before I came to New York.”

“I had studied English before I came to New York.”

or

“I ate breakfast before I came to class.”
“I had eaten breakfast before I came to class.”

Both are perfectly fine and valid.

2. The past perfect can also be used to talk about how long you had done something until a certain time in the past e.g.

“I had lived in London for 3 months when I first met David.”

Spanish: “Había vivido en Londres durante 3 meses cuando conocí a David.”
French: “J’avais vécu à Londres pendant 3 mois lorsque j’ai rencontré David pour la première fois.”

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