Past Perfect

So we’ve talked about the simple past.

We’ve talked about the past progressive or continuous.

We’ve talked about present perfect.

Now we need to talk about past perfect.

This one is a little bit difficult.

So we have to use a lot of examples to kind of get the feeling for it.

However we can make it a little easier by saying that it’s grammatically similar to the present perfect where we say have for example I have been the only change we make is saying had been had been going instead of have been going OK or we can say I had finished I had finished doesn’t have to be i n g so that way it’s similar to the present perfect tense the one we did before but when we use it is a little bit more complicated it can be used to express what I call a past of a past if you want to use it in the same way as the present perfect where it goes up to some point it’s like that but then that point is not the present not now it’s in the past and now is over here.

So that’s a little bit complicated but I’ll give you some examples in a minute.

We can also say just like we did with the present perfect tense we can also say that something happened a certain number of times or something happened or didn’t happen before.

Another thing that happened in the past and now is over here.

So this happened and this happened and then here’s last Tuesday and then this is now.

All right.

So it’s two things happened before this happened.

Totally it’s three things but two things happened before that.

So let’s look at some pretty simple examples with this past perfect tense.

I had been going to the gym every day until I got my new job.

I had been.

So that thing was going on.

It’s like saying I have been going to the gym every day.

I have been would mean that it’s going on now.

But I got my new job maybe a month ago and so it stopped when I got my new job.

So now I’m not going to the gym.

It stopped in the past.

I have been going to the gym up until now.

I had been going to the gym up until a past point I had been going to the gym every day until I got my new job.

Now.

OK.

How long had you been waiting.

Before I arrived.

This should be at BGF Sorry.

Sorry.

How long had you been waiting.

Before I arrived.

OK.

So I arrived at 2 p.m..

Now it’s 5:00 p.m. It’s over here 5 p.m. now.

This is 2:00 p.m. OK.

And you are waiting for me right.

I have been waiting.

If you arrive and I’m sitting here I’ll say I’ve been waiting up until the present.

Right now I’ve been waiting for an hour.

Oh I’m sorry but this is in the past 2:00 p.m..

How long had you been waiting.

Before I arrived.

How long had you been waiting before I arrived so you can think of it in a similar way to the other one we learned.

But you just push the present back into the past.

And now we have a a now here.

Right.

But basically the idea is the same.

I hope that’s clear.

But we’ll go over a couple more examples anyway.

OK.

So a few more examples here.

We had been friends we had been friends for many years until we started at different high schools.

So that means now are we friends.

No no we’re not probably not friends anymore.

We had been friends we had been best friends until we started at different high schools.

We started at different high schools maybe 15 years ago 15 years ago we started at different high schools.

We had been very very good friends up until then.

OK.

Can we say we were very good friends until high school.

Past tense.

Yeah yeah.

You can you can say that in this case.

But sometimes it makes it more clear to use this past perfect tense.

I had seen the movie once already but went again and then we could say maybe last night because why.

Because I really liked it well I really like it.

You still like it so you can use that too.

So on Tuesday I saw the movie the first time.

Wow.

Such a good movie.

Right.

And then last night I went another time because I enjoyed it.

Now it’s maybe three days later.

So I have seen the movie.

How many times.

Totally.

I have seen it twice.

I have seen it twice.

But when I want to talk about seeing it the last time I saw it.

All right three days ago I saw it most recently three days ago and then talk about how many times before that past thing I saw it one time then I would say I had seen it once already but went again last night for three days ago in my other example not trying to confuse you there.

How about this.

I went to Canada.

I went to Canada on Monday.

I had already been there three times OK.

So how many times have I been to Canada four.

I had already been there three times before I went there on Monday.

Now I’m not there.

Now I’m back where I live right.

So we basically are talking about past things that happened before another past thing.

I went to Canada on Monday.

I went to Canada on Monday.

I had been there three times before.

OK let’s try another example.

I had asked her to wait for me but when I came outside she was gone.

So we could just say I came outside and she was gone.

That’s a simple past thing that happened right.

Simple past.

I came outside and she was gone.

But if I want to give that more detail and I want to express more about the whole situation I can talk about what I did before I came outside and saw that she was gone.

Well what did I do before that.

I asked her to wait for me outside.

So I want to express a past thing that happened before another past thing.

That’s when it’s really really useful to use past perfect tense.

I had asked her to wait for me but when I got outside or when I came outside she was gone.

Now we have a really clear picture of the whole thing that happened in many cases using this style of grammar using this tense makes it really clear.

The difficulty is how do you do it right.

Getting enough practice is really important so you can get the feel for how to use this more difficult type of grammar this more difficult tense.

So practice it.

I’ll provide the examples.

Make sure you review those really carefully.

Lots of examples are a great way to get the feeling for something but it’s also very important to do lots of practice because then it can become a habit.

And when you want to express yourself it’s right there.

All right.

So an assignment to practice this make at least two sentences with each tense each.

Each one we learned the simple past the past progressive right was going the present perfect and the past perfect practice.

All of the different types make two sentences or more.

Don’t worry too much about remembering the names right.

Focus on the examples that I gave you in this lesson.

And then just make sure you feel really comfortable using each one you need to get comfortable with it.

If you do you’ll be able to express things in time wherever you are especially in the past which is the most difficult.

You’ll be able to do those things really easily and that will give you a lot of power because when you speak people will go Oh well I understand exactly what you’re saying.

You have command over time.

Practice is really important.

And so I hope you practice a lot.

And if it’s boring just remember you know it’s gonna get more interesting it’s going to get more fun.

All right.