Past Perfect Simple Tense

We use Past Perfect Simple Tense to talk about past actions that happened earlier than a past event.

Affirmative: SUBJECT+HAD+DONE+OBJECT

I He She It You We They

had

seen

it.

Negative: SUBJECT+HAD NOT+DONE+OBJECT

I He She It You We They

had not (hadn't)

seen

it.

Question:HAD+SUBJECT+DONE+OBJECT?

Had

I he she it you we they

seen

it?

We use Past Participle form of the verb with this tense.

Past Participle Forms of Some Irregular Verbs:          

be- been show – shown see – seen go – gone  take – taken give – given come – come write - written drink – drunk  break - broken

do - done eat - eaten fly - flown ride - ridden drive - driven run - run read - read win – won speak – spoken  swim - swum

  Past Participle Forms of Some Regular Verbs:

cry – cried  try – tried clean – cleaned jump – jumped play – played  dance – danced work – worked call – called use - used ask – asked

move - moved believe - believed live - lived happen - happened change - changed continue - continued talk - talked watch - watched stop - stopped start - started

We generally use Past Perfect Tense with when, by the time (with Past Simple)  or already:

• By the time Jack arrived home, his wife had already eaten dinner. (First, his wife ate dinner, then Jack arrived.)

                                       

The restaurant had closed when he got there.                       Everyone had already left when they arrived at the auction.

                                         

Aunt Annie had done the dishes by the time we visited her.        By the time she checked the turkey, it had burned.