Past Perfect - usage, formation, examples.

This lecture is about the past perfect tense the past perfect makes clear the order of events in the past.

This is one of the less frequently used tenses some examples of usage the past perfect is used for referring to a point further in the past from a past point in time.

For unlikely or impossible past situations as in the third conditional and for reported speech past perfect is formed as follows.

The positive case you have subject plus had plus past participle.

Example I had liked ice cream in a negative subject plus had not plus past participle we hadn’t liked ice cream as a question had plus subject plus past participle.

Had she liked ice cream as a negative question Had it not.

Plus subject plus past participle hadn’t.

She liked ice cream so that some examples when referring to a point further in the past from the past point in time I had saved my files before the computer froze.

So at some time in the past the computer had frozen or crashed.

But before that I’d saved my files so everything was fine.

We were late the film had started by the time we arrived so we’re telling somebody about maybe some time in the past.

Yesterday last week whenever when we arrive late for the film and before that point that we were talking about the film had started with the past perfect is used to refer to a point further back than the one we’re talking about.

So also used to form the third conditional four unlikely or impossible past situations if I had worked harder I would have passed the exam where the impossible bet is that you can’t change the past.

So I didn’t work harder and that’s why I didn’t pass the exam.

If I knew you were visiting I would have baked a cake Well there isn’t a cake here because I didn’t know you were visiting and for reported speech bearing in mind that when we report something we drop back at tents from the tents it was used so if somebody says I have already eaten.

When we report this we would say he said he had already eaten or somebody says I have finished my homework when we report it.

We said she said she had finished her homework.