Rosemary would have finished reading the book if she had had enough time off. If Eddie had gone to bed earlier, he could have awaked earlier too. It’s the arrival of firefighters that takes place next, so it has been expressed in a simple past.ī, To denote the time up to a point in the pastīy the time Juanita was ten, she had published her second story.ĭerek had eaten half the cake before Ron was home.īefore it was time for the service, we had all reached the church.Ĭ, To form the if clause in third conditionals It’s the crumbling that happens first, so it has been said in a past perfect tense. There are two actions – the arrival of firefighters and the crumbling of the building. Let’s, for instance, take a look at the first sentence - when the firefighters arrived, the building had already crumbled. While the action that happens first is represented using the past perfect, the action that occurs second is written using the past simple. It’s important to note that each of the above sentences has two actions – one taking place after another. The robbers had just made their getaway when the police arrived. I hadn’t copied the file before the computer crashed.īecause he hadn’t eaten well, Chris couldn’t work at his best. When the firefighters arrived, the building had already crumbled.ĭad had gone shopping when I reached home. The past perfect is used in four different ways.Ī, To talk about the earlier of two past actions or states Had it grown? Functions of Past Perfect Tense If I had worked harder, I would have passed the test in the first attempt. The school looked very different from what Little Jasper had expected. Heather had once or twice tried to get in touch with the company before she filed a complaint.Ĭlifford didn’t know how to write the assignment because he had never been given one before. The Taylors didn’t want to sell the car because they had owned it for many years. Roberto had studied German before he moved to Germany.īy the time Constance came home, Grandma had already gone back. The formula of the past perfect tense is had + past participle. So, students should know when and how to use the past perfect tense so they add more insight and diversity to their sentences. The past perfect tense is interesting because it enables you to compare different actions and times in the past. "I’m going to be a little late to work today because when I reached the station, the train had already left." Frustrated, you might want to call your boss and tell him something like this. But to your dismay, the train was just leaving when you reached the station. Imagine that you awaked a little late this morning, rushed through your daily routine, and hurried to the metro hoping to catch the usual 8 o’clock train so you could reach work by 9. The problem is many people use the simple past and past perfect interchangeably, which is not something we encourage because each of these tenses has its own specific functions. The past perfect tense, also called the pluperfect tense, is one of the higher-order tenses and using it correctly is often not a piece of cake. The three perfect tenses are past perfect tense, present perfect tense, and future perfect tense. In this lesson, we are going to discuss in detail the functions of each of the three perfect tenses in English. As is the case with every tense in English, each perfect tense has a unique formula. Perfect tenses can appear in any of the three forms: the past perfect tense, the present perfect tense, and the future perfect tense. What Is a Perfect Tense?Īs the name suggests, a perfect tense denotes an action that is completed. Just as we have progressive tenses to talk about things that are going on, we have perfect tenses to express actions that are completed. All actions are represented by at least one – in many cases more than one – of the 12 tenses in English. In other words, no action ever goes unattended or not represented. Have you ever learned what a perfect tense is? English tenses are so rich that there is some tense that so beautifully captures the essence of every action that happens in the world – tense-wise.
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