Past Perfect
1. Formation
We form the past perfect with had + the past participle.
I had written a letter.
She had not read my letter.
Had you worked?
2. Use
With the help of the past perfect we can express the idea that one past action followed another. The action that happened first is in the past perfect.
Fiona had already left the coffee bar by the time I arrived.
Fiona had left when I arrived (now)
The past perfect is also used to refer to a state. The state began before a point of time in the past and continued to that time.
When I visited Patrick in hospital, he had been there for ten days.
We use the past perfect for an action only when we need to emphasize that it
happened before another action. Compare:
When Patrick’s friends arrived, he had cooked the lunch.
When Patrick’s friends arrived, he cooked the lunch.
1. Formation
We form the past perfect with had + the past participle.
I had written a letter.
She had not read my letter.
Had you worked?
2. Use
With the help of the past perfect we can express the idea that one past action followed another. The action that happened first is in the past perfect.
Fiona had already left the coffee bar by the time I arrived.
Fiona had left when I arrived (now)
The past perfect is also used to refer to a state. The state began before a point of time in the past and continued to that time.
When I visited Patrick in hospital, he had been there for ten days.
We use the past perfect for an action only when we need to emphasize that it
happened before another action. Compare:
When Patrick’s friends arrived, he had cooked the lunch.
When Patrick’s friends arrived, he cooked the lunch.