The Past Perfect Tense
We don't use the past perfect a lot in English, but it is useful, and it sounds very good if you can use it correctly. Also, it's really easy to make - just the past simple of 'have' and the past participle.
(Learn about USING the past perfect here)
The positive - make it with 'had' + the past participle (usually made by adding 'ed' to the infinitive, but a few verbs have irregular past participles):
(Also, here's some help if you are not sure how to pronounce '-ed' at the end of a verb).
- I had been (I'd been)
- You had gone (you'd gone)
- She had met (she'd met)
- He had played (he'd played)
- It had rained (it'd rained)
- We had bought (we'd bought)
- They had studied (they'd studied)
The short form for 'had' is 'd.
(Be careful not to confuse it with 'would'. Would is followed by the infinitive - 'I'd go', whereas had is followed by the past participle - 'I'd gone').
For the negative just add 'not':
- I had not been (I hadn't been)
- You had not gone (you hadn't gone)
- She had not met (she hadn't met)
- He had not played (he hadn't played)
- It had not rained (it hadn't rained)
- We had not bought (we hadn't bought)
- They had not studied (they hadn't studied)
Here's a exercise about the positive and negative forms.
And to make a 'yes / no' question put 'had' before the subject:
- Had I come?
- Had you eaten?
- Had she gone?
- Had it rained?
- Had he studied?
- Had we met?
- Had they left?
For 'wh' questions put the question word at the beginning:
- When had I come?
- Why had you eaten?
- Where had she gone?
- When had it rained?
- Why had he studied?
- How had we met?
- When had they left?
Finally here's an exercise about past perfect questions.
