A. FORM OF PAST PERFECT
The past perfect is formed with had + the past participle of the verb: I/you/he/she/it/we/they had worked.
I/you/he/she/it/we/they
had not (hadn't) worked.
Had I/you/he/she/it/we/they
worked? (Yes, I/you/etc. had. /No, I/you/etc.
hadn't.)
B. Previous and
subsequent events
The
past perfect is used to refer back to completed actions that happened before
other events in the past. Compare:
1.
When I
arrived at the office, the meeting started.
(I arrived at the office, and then the meeting started.)
2. When I
arrived at the office, the meeting had started.
(The meeting
started before I got to the office. I was late.)
In 1, it is
also possible to use As soon as and After in place of When. In 2, it is also possible to use By the time in place of When.
C. Present
perfect and past perfect
The
past perfect acts as the past form of the present perfect. It is often used
with adverbs like just, already, never.
Compare:
1.
I am
nervous because I have never given a presentation.
(I am about to
give a presentation.)
2.
I was
nervous because I had never given a presentation.
(I gave a
presentation yesterday.)
The past perfect is
often used in reported speech structures and in 3rd conditionals.
D. Past perfect continuous
The past perfect
continuous is formed by using the auxiliary had been + the -ing
form of the verb (I/he/you/etc, had (not) been working).
We
use the present perfect continuous to talk about how long an activity has been
going on up to the present. We use the past perfect continuous to talk about
the duration of an activity up to a point in the past. Compare:
I have been working here for six months.
(I am still
working here now.)
When I
left my last job, I had been working there
for four years.
(I started in 1990
and I left in 1994.)
We
do not use the past perfect continuous with stative verbs like know, like, etc. Instead, we use the
past perfect:
When they met again, they had not seen each other for 15 years.
