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.

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).

 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)

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?