Second Block Past Perfect

The past perfect simple expresses an action taking place before a certain time in the past.

Use of Past Perfect

• action taking place before a certain time in the past
  (putting emphasis only on the fact, not the duration)
  Example: Before I came here, I had spoken to Jack.
• Conditional Sentences Type III (condition that was not given in the past)
  Example: If I had seen him, I would have talked to him.

Signal Words

• already, just, never, not yet, once, until that day (with reference to the past, not the present)
• If-     Typ III (If I had talked, …)

The past perfect is formed by combining the auxiliary verb "had" with the past participle.

Because the past perfect is a compound tense, two verbs are required: the main verb and the auxiliary verb.

The structure of the past perfect tense is:

subject	+	auxiliary verb HAVE	+	main verb
		conjugated in simple past tense		past participle
		had		V3

For negative sentences in the past perfect tense, we insert not between the auxiliary verb and main verb. For question sentences, we exchange the subject and auxiliary verb. Look at these example sentences with the past perfect tense:

	subject	auxiliary verb		main verb
+	I	had		finished	my work.
+	You	had		stopped	before me.
-	She	had	not	gone	to school.
-	We	had	not	left.
?	Had	you		arrived?
?	Had	they		eaten	dinner?

When speaking with the past perfect tense, we often contract the subject and auxiliary verb:

I had	I'd
you had	you'd
he had she had it had	he'd she'd it'd
we had	we'd
they had	they'd