The Past Perfect Simple/ Continuous-Unit 3(Ticket to English)-Lesson

Past perfect tense

The past perfect refers to an event that was completed at some point in the past before something else happened. It is formed by combining the auxiliary verb had with the past participle of the main verb.

Form of the past perfect simple:

Had	Past Participle

Affirmative	Negative	Interrogative
I had worked.	I had not worked.	had I worked?
You had worked.	You had not worked.	had you worked?

NOTE:

I had not worked = I hadn't worked
I had worked = I'd worked

Use of the past perfect simple:

⇒Use the past perfect tense to show an action that was completed prior to another action that took place in the past.

Examples:

. He had learned Spanish before he went to Spain.

. President Lincoln had attended the theater before his assassination in 1865.

. They had had lunch when I arrived.

. She passed the exam because she had worked very hard.

  ________________________________________________________

THE PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS

The past perfect continuous corresponds to the present perfect continuous, but with reference to a time earlier than 'before now'. As with the present perfect continuous, we are more interested in the process.

EXAMPLES

• Had you been waiting long before the taxi arrived?
• We had been trying to open the door for five minutes when Jane found her key.
• It had been raining hard for several hours and the streets were very wet.
• Her friends had been thinking of calling the police when she walked in.

This form is also used in reported speech. It is the equivalent of the past continuous and the present perfect continuous in direct speech:

• Jane said, "I have been gardening all afternoon." = Jane said she had been gardening all afternoon.
• When the police questioned him, John said, "I was working late in the office that night." = When the police questioned him, John told them he had been working late in the office that night.

FORMING THE PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS

The past perfect continuous is composed of two elements - the past perfect of the verb to be (=had been) + the present participle (base+ing).

Subject	had been	verb + ing
I	had been	walking
Affirmative
She	had been	trying
Negative
She	hadn't been	sleeping
Interrogative
Had you	been	eating?
Interrogative negative
Hadn't they	been	living?

TO BUY, PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS

Affirmative	Negative	Interrogative
I had been buying	I hadn't been buying	Had I been buying
You had been buying	You hadn't been buying	Had you been buying
She had been buying	She hadn't been buying	Had she been buying
We had been buying	We hadn't been buying	Had we been buying
They had been buying	They hadn't been buying	Had they been buying