Learn English Tenses: PAST PERFECT

In this class, you will learn all about the past perfect tense.

Now, this tense is an advanced tense, but it's not hard to learn.

We're going to make it easy, because this tense will actually allow you to talk about

things that have happened in the past in a much more interesting and powerful way, alright?

Now, this class is part of the series created by www.engvid.com to help you master all of

the English verb tenses, step by step, okay?

So, are you ready to begin?

Let's go.

So, the past perfect tense is sometimes called the past of the past.

Let me explain why.

So, let's look at this timeline, alright?

So, this is now and let's say it's 11:00.

So, everything before that is in the past.

So, if we look at these sentences, we could say, "The meeting started at 9:00", okay?

This is one sentence right now.

Here's another sentence, "We arrived at 10:00."

Now, right now, this is not past perfect.

These are just two simple sentences in the simple past, or the past simple, right?

The meeting started, we arrived, these are past simple sentences, and they're two separate

sentences.

But we are now going to connect them in a certain way.

Let me show you.

So, the past perfect sentence would be like this, "When we arrived", right, at 10:00,

"the meeting had started."

So, "had started" is the past perfect tense.

So, what does this tense allow us to do that this one did not allow us to do?

What it did is it allows us to show or talk about two or more things that happened in

the past and we want to show which of those things happened first in the past.

Alright?

So, in this case, what happened first?

9:00 or 10:00?

Okay?

The meeting started at 9:00, that happened first.

So, whatever happened first, we express in the past perfect tense.

The other part of the sentence, if you have it, can be just in the past simple tense,

"we arrived".

But when we want to show what happened first, we use the past perfect tense.

So again, we use the past perfect tense when we're talking about two or more things, both

of which happened in the past, and we want to show which of them happened first in the

past.

The one which happened first is the one where we use the past perfect tense, like here.

So, now, let's just look very quickly and basically at the structure of this tense.

It's easy.

So, we have the subject, I, You, We, They, He, She, It, doesn't matter, and with all

of them, you only have to learn one helping verb, "had".

It's the verb "have" in the past tense, and then to that, we add the third form of the

verb or what is called the past participle.

Right now, don't worry about all that.

We're going to go through all of that as we go along.

But I've just written a few examples so you can see it.

So, it would sound like this and look like this: I had worked.

That's if it's a regular verb.

Or, "I had gone", that's an example of an irregular verb.

Okay?

So, these are the basics and now we'll understand more as we go along.

Now, let's look at when we use the past perfect tense.

So, we use it to talk about two or more things that happened in the past, and we want to

show which of those things happened first.

So, when we say "first", that "first" or before can mean a short time ago, a long time ago,

or mixed times.

Okay?

Let's look at some examples.

So, we have this example: Before the guests arrived, some things had been done, right?

So, we can say: Before the guests arrived, we had cleaned the house.

"Had cleaned", past perfect.

We had ordered pizza.

"Had ordered", and we had made dessert, okay?

So, this part is in past simple, just that word "arrived", that doesn't matter for what

we are focusing on.

But this part matters.

These are the parts which are the past perfect, and by saying "had cleaned", "had ordered",

and "had made", we know that the person did those things before the guests arrived, alright?

Now, one point.

In order for you to learn it, I am writing each time, "We had cleaned", "We had ordered",

"We had made", but it is possible that, in real life, when you're writing these sentences,

you could just say the "had" once.

So, for example, you could say, "We had cleaned the house", and this "had" is going to go

for everything.

"We had cleaned the house, ordered pizza, and made dessert".

But when you say that, by putting the "had" first, it means we had cleaned, we had ordered,

and we had made, okay?

But you can also write it as many times as you need to, it's not a problem.

Let's look at another example: By the time Maria moved to Canada, she had done some things,

right?

So, let's see what they are.

She had graduated from university, "had graduated", past perfect.

She had learned English, "had learned", and she had worked as a teacher, "had worked".

Okay?

So again, this part with "had graduated, had learned, had worked" is the past perfect tense.

And this part is the past simple.

That's okay.

Now, in this case, we had three regular verbs, alright?

In this case, this was regular, "cleaned" is regular, "ordered" is regular, but "made"

was irregular, so we had to use that third form, which we're going to look at a little

bit more later.

Let's take one last example: When the president came to power, the economy had improved - so

we see here, "had improved", the currency had strengthened, and unemployment had decreased.

So, the economy had improved means it had become better.

The currency - currency means what?

Like the dollar, the euro, the pound, okay?

The currency had strengthened, means it became stronger.

And unemployment - the number of people not working, had decreased.

It had gone down.

So, again, this tells us that these things had already happened when the president came

to power, okay?

Now, another point is that when you have this kind of sentence and you want to use past

perfect, then you don't have to always have two parts of the sentence.

Sometimes, somebody might have asked you a question and you're just giving the answer.

So, if someone says, for example, "What was the situation when the president came to power?"

So then, you could just say, "Well, the economy had improved, the currency had strengthened,

and unemployment had decreased."

But you're saying that in the context of the question that was asked earlier.

So, these are the main ways in which we use the past perfect, and when we use it.

Now, let's look at how we form the past perfect tense.

So, the basic structure is this: subject + had + past participle.

What does that mean?

Subject means one of these words, like I, You, We, They, He, She, It, or anything else

like Mr. Jones or the school, or something like that.

Then you have the helping verb "had", only "had", that's the form you use for everything,

all the subjects.

And then, you have to add the verb in the past participle.

What does that mean?

Well, it's different for a regular verb and for an irregular verb.

For a regular verb, the past participle is just the same form that you would use in the

regular past simple tense.

Like, "work" becomes "worked", right?

"Dance" becomes "danced".

"Study" - "studied".

These are regular verbs, right?

And in the past tense, those past simple tense, those are their forms and that's the same

past participle form that we use here, okay?

With the regular verbs.

Now, with the irregular verbs, you do have to learn what that past participle form is.

Why?

Because with the irregular verbs, it changes.

It often changes or sometimes it doesn't change and so on.

There are all kinds of unusual combinations and changes which you have to learn and which

you probably already heard a lot and you know.

You probably know many of them.

And if you don't know many of them, any good grammar book will usually have a list of these

kind of irregular verbs, or you can look them up online.

So, examples of the past participle of an irregular verb are verbs like the verb "to

go", right?

That's the regular, that's the base form of the verb.

In the past tense, it becomes "went".

Go - went.

And in the third form, which we need here, it becomes "gone".

Go, went, gone.

So, we're looking for that third form, right?

Seen, saw, seen, like that, alright?

Do, did, done.

So, you need to learn that third form.

But once you know it, then it's easy to use this tense.

Alright.

So, let's look now at three situations.

The positive sentence, a negative sentence, and a question.

Okay?

So, in the positive sentence, you would just use the subject and say "had worked".

For example, "I had worked".

Say it after me: You had worked.

We had worked.

They had worked.

He had worked.

She had worked, and it had worked.

Okay, "it" is a thing, like a computer or a phone or an air conditioner or something,

okay?

And the same thing with an irregular verb, like "I had gone".

So, if we had a sentence, we could have said, for example, "Before he went home yesterday,

he had worked for ten hours."

Okay?

Or, "When I called her, she had gone to the supermarket."

Okay?

So, that's how we could use that.

Next, in a negative sentence, we would simply - we're basically adding "not" to this.

Instead of saying "had worked", we are saying "had not worked".

I had not worked, you had not worked, we had not worked, and so on, okay?

And if you want to shorten it, which very often we do, especially when - in regular

conversation, we don't say, "I had not worked", we say "I hadn't.

So, let's repeat that: I hadn't worked.

I hadn't gone.

Okay?

And it would be the same for all of the subjects, okay, in the negative form.

Now, let's look at the questions.

As we know, when it's a question, we have to change the order.

So now, we start with "had".

Had you worked for eight hours yesterday when I called you?

Okay, something like that.

Alright?

Or, "Had they gone home already when you arrived?"

Okay?

So, had I worked, had you worked, had we worked, had they worked, had he worked, had she worked,

had they worked?

Now, when you're saying this word, make sure you're saying the ending correctly.

Worked.

Gone.

Don't shorten it because otherwise it will sound like your grammar is wrong, because

of the pronunciation, okay?

So, another thing to keep in mind is that if you need to add a question word, you would

add it here.

For example, you could say - then it would become "Where had", "Where had you worked

before you joined this company?"

Okay?

For example, right?

Who had you worked with?

When had you worked there?

Okay?

So, anytime you're adding that question word, that's fine, but just make sure you keep this

structure.

Where had you worked, not where you had worked, where had you worked?

Where had you gone?

Okay?

That's it.

Now, I want to point out a special situation which you have to get used to, because it's

going to sound really strange if you haven't heard it already, which is like here, what

was our base verb?

Work.

And here, it was "go", right?

But sometimes, the verb itself that you want to use is the verb "to have".

Now, so that means you have to use the subject, you have to use "had" always, but now this

verb itself is the verb "to have".

For example, in the expression, "To have breakfast".

That's the expression.

So, if you want to use this verb in the past perfect form, you'd have to say, "I had had",

okay?

So, it will sound like this, and be written like this: I had had breakfast.

When I left home, I had already had breakfast.

Or: When I left home, I had had breakfast.

And it might sound really strange to you.

You say, "Really?

We have to say had had?

We have to say it twice?"

Yes, we do.

Because it's just following the same rule.

You just take the verb and you put it into the past participle form, and in this case,

that becomes had.

And so, you might see these strange kind of sentences in English, where we say, "I had

had".

Or, if it's negative, it would be, "I hadn't had breakfast when I left home", or you could

ask somebody, "Have you had breakfast when you went home?"

Alright?

Or when you left the house?

Okay?

Something like that.

So, just remember that there is this little strange one with the verb "to have".

And that's basically how you construct the past perfect tense.

Now, let's look at some common words and expressions that we use with the past perfect tense.

So, number one: Before we moved, we had already sold the house.

So, which part is the past perfect?

This part: had already sold.

Had sold, right?

And the word that's often used is "already".

Okay?

So, you might see this word used very often and it kind of makes sense when we're trying

to express the idea that something happened before something else.

Alright?

Next, number two: When she arrived home, she hadn't heard the news yet.

So, let's find the past perfect part.

She had not heard, that's the past perfect, and the word, the expression is "yet".

It means till that time.

Okay?

Or, before that time.

Now, I've written these sentences in a particular way.

I put this part in one line and then the past perfect part in a second line, but in real

life, you wouldn't write like that.

You would just continue the sentence normally, but I just divided like that so you can see

it more easily, alright?

Okay.

Now, number three: At the time I joined the company, I had been a salesperson for five

years.

So, where's the past perfect?

I had been, okay?

I had been - this is the past participle form of which verb?

The verb "to be".

I am, I was, I have been or I had been, alright?

So, the word that is used frequently with this is the word "for".

"For" always tells us the period of time, for how long?

For five years.

Alright?

Another one: He had lived in New York since 2018.

Or, we could say, "He had lived in New York since he was a child."

So, let's find the past perfect first.

He had lived, right, regular verb here, and the word, the common word that's used often

is "since".

Alright, we have it here or here.

So, "since 2018", so it's always since + a point in time.

For + a period of time or a length of time.

But since + a point in time.

Since 2018.

Since he was a child, okay?

That point in time when he was a child.

Alright.

Next, number five: Before they visited the U.S., they had never seen snow.

So, where is the past perfect?

Here: had seen, but in this case, had never seen.

So, "never" is another word, okay, that we can use.

Sometimes, we also use the word "ever".

For example, "Had they ever seen snow before they visited the U.S.? Okay?

You can use it that way as well.

But "ever" and "never".

These are other common expressions that we frequently use with this tense.

Now, also, one small point.

A lot of people make this little mistake.

It has nothing to do with the past perfect tense, it just has to do with good English.

So, you need to say "before they visited the U.S.".

Many people say "before they visited U.S." which is short for the United States.

But you need to say "the U.S." the United States, alright?

Don't forget that little word, that article.

Number six: We had just had lunch when our friends dropped in.

Okay.

Now, first of all, where's the past perfect?

Here, right?

It's one of those slightly weird ones, where we said "had had", because we're talking about

lunch, right?

To have lunch, to have breakfast, to have dinner, to have a snack, to have some coffee,

to have some tea.

We have this expression with lots of food and drink, alright?

But the common expression here is the word "just".

We had just had lunch means a very short time ago, before or when our friends dropped in.

What does that mean, they dropped in?

It's an expression too.

They didn't drop.

They didn't fall from somewhere, no.

When friends drop in, it means they came usually to your house without an appointment or without

being invited, they just were in the neighborhood and they decided to see you and they knocked

on your door.

It doesn't happen too much in North America, but it can happen with good friends.

Alright?

So, that is the meaning of "dropped in".

But here, let's look over those key words and expressions.

"Just", "never", "ever", "since", "for", "yet", and "already".

Okay?

So now, you already know how to use these.

Now, let's look at some spelling changes we need to make when we create contractions when

we shorten the words, and also let's see how to pronounce these contractions.

So, this is the full form: I had worked.

What does it become when we contract it or shorten it in regular conversation?

It could be, "I'd worked".

Alright?

So, first what we'll do is we'll look at the spelling and later, we'll go over the pronunciation.

So, how did this become this?

What did we do?

We had to cancel this, add an apostrophe in the place where we removed the letters and

then we joined these two words.

So, "I had" becomes "I'd worked".

So, very often, you'll hear people saying that, but when they're saying "I'd worked

a lot yesterday", that means they're using past perfect.

I had worked, alright?

So, the same thing will happen here: You had visited becomes "You'd".

We had seen - We'd seen.

Don't worry, we'll go over them again for the pronunciation.

First, just pay attention to the spelling.

They had found - They'd found.

He had left - He'd left.

She had bought - She'd bought.

Okay?

We don't usually contract the "It had", we don't say that "It'd".

It just sounds really weird, so we don't usually use that, alright?

So now, first, let's go over the pronunciation of this part, okay?

So, repeat after me: I'd worked.

You'd visited.

Make sure when you're saying it that we can hear that "d" sound, because if you don't

hear that "d", then what does it sound like?

Just listen: You visited.

That's a different tense completely.

"You visited" is which one?

Past simple.

But "You'd visited" is "You had visited", is past perfect, which is what we are learning.

Okay?

The next one: We'd seen.

They'd found.

He'd left.

She'd bought.

Okay?

That's in the positive form.

We can also contract it in the negative form.

"I had not decided" becomes what?

I hadn't decided.

So here, again, the o disappeared, the apostrophe came in its place, and these two words joined

together to become "hadn't".

So, let's say all of these together.

I hadn't decided.

You hadn't visited.

We'll make these negative, okay?

We hadn't seen.

They hadn't found.

Good, keep saying them.

He hadn't left.

And the last one: She hadn't bought.

Okay?

Good.

Now you know the correct spelling and pronunciation of these, but let's just look here again.

So, what happened here was that the "I had" became "I'd", right?

We saw that above there.

But what I want you to know is that "I'd" by itself doesn't have to be past perfect.

It could also be something else, and how do you know that?

It depends on the rest of the sentence.

Let's look at the example.

So here, "I'd" could mean "I had returned the book already".

That's our regular past perfect, right?

Had returned.

So here, if they said "I'd", it would mean "I had".

But, if we use "I'd" here, it could also be short for "I would do anything for you."

So, "I would", right, could also be shortened to "I'd".

Okay?

And "I had" can also be shortened to "I'd".

And you know that, you know which one it stands for based on what happens after that, okay?

So, these are the main points to keep in mind when you're writing in the past perfect and

when you're speaking and wish to pronounce it properly.

Now, let's look at how to give short answers using the past perfect tense.

So, the first question: Had she finished the report?

If somebody asks you, right?

When you called her, had she finished the report?

So you could just say, instead of giving the full answer and repeating the whole question

again, we just use a short answer and we say either "Yes, she had", or "No, she hadn't".

Alright?

Remember that contraction?

And how do you know what word to use?

It's right there in your question, okay?

"Yes, she had."

"No, she hadn't."

And what's important here is that this one, you cannot use any contraction.

Alright?

You'll have to say the full form.

"Yes, she had", or "No, she hadn't".

And here, we definitely do use the contraction, okay?

You can say, "No, she had not", but that is when you're maybe - something a little angry

or something is a little more serious, then we say it in full.

But in regular conversation, we just say, "No, she hadn't".

Okay, let's look at another example: Had the informed their clients - let's say - before

the meeting, okay?

Had they informed their clients means have they told their clients?

So again, we do the same thing.

We're using the word from the question itself, right?

So, the answer will be "Yes, they had", or "No, they hadn't".

Okay?

Say it after me: Yes, they had.

No, they hadn't.

Good, good.

Very nice.

And then the last one: Had it happened before?

Maybe like, this problem, okay?

Had it happened before?

So here, same thing, you can say, "Yes, it had", and you could also say "No, it hadn't".

So, with the negative form, okay, we can use a contraction with "it".

We don't use so much a contraction with the positive version.

And here, in any case, we cannot use a contraction with the positive answer, but you can use

it with the negative.

So, we say "No, it hadn't".

Say it after me: No, it hadn't.

Okay!

So, suppose I ask you, "Before you watched this lesson, had you understood the past perfect

tense?"

You could either say, "Yes, I had", because maybe you've already studied this tense before

and you're reviewing.

Or, you could say, "No, I hadn't".

And that's how we give the short answers in this tense.

Now, let's look at how to spell and pronounce some of the regular and irregular verbs that

we need to use with the past perfect tense.

So, of course, you can use any verb with the past perfect tense, but they're divided into

two sections.

The regular ones, where we usually add only -ed or -d or whatever, which we're going to

look at.

And the irregular ones, which might change completely, okay?

So, let's start with the regular.

So, for most regular verbs, all you have to do to make that third form, the past participle

that you need to use, or the past simple form, which is the same thing, is to add -ed.

So, "talk" becomes "talked", right?

We just have that.

"Watch" becomes "watched", okay?

Say those two after me: talked, watched.

Okay?

In that case, they both ended with a "t" sound.

Sometimes, the verb itself ends with an e already, then we don't need to add -ed, we

just add -d.

So, "live" becomes "lived".

"Love" - "loved".

So, we see here, we only added the -d.

So, it would be "He had lived" in the past perfect, "He had loved".

She had watched.

We had talked.

Like that, okay?

Now, sometimes, you have a regular verb which ends with y, like this, and it has a consonant

before.

So then, what happens is we cancel this y and add -ied.

"Cry" - "cried".

"Study" - "studied", okay?

Same thing here, okay?

Say them after me: cried, studied.

Good.

And sometimes, we have a verb which has this kind of pattern, that when you look at the

verb, right, from the end, it has consonant, vowel, consonant.

A vowel in English is A, E, I, O or U, and a consonant is every other letter besides

the vowels.

So, if you look and you see a consonant and then a vowel and then a consonant, then very

often, most of the time, we need to double the last letter.

For example: "Stop" - "stopped", right?

You see that?

We added the -ed, but we need to double the last letter and then add -ed.

Also, this word, again, c-v-c, right?

"Plan" becomes "planned", okay?

Good.

You see that here.

Say it after me: stopped, planned.

Okay, good.

So, those are some of the basic patterns, the more common patterns with the regular

verbs.

With irregular verbs, you kind of have to learn them, okay?

You have to learn them by heart, you have to learn what they are, how to spell them,

and so on.

They do follow - they do fall into some categories or groups, and that can help you a little

bit, but most of the time, you just learn them by listening, by reading and so on, okay?

But, let's see what some of the more common ones are.

So, "Be" becomes "been".

I had been.

"Have" becomes "had".

I had had breakfast.

Remember?

You know that one now.

You can even explain to someone why, in English, sometimes we say "had had", because of the

past perfect tense!

Okay.

"Make" - "made".

I had made.

Sorry, "know" becomes "known", alright?

So, I had known.

We had known each other for a long time.

"Think" becomes "thought".

"Buy" - "bought".

"Sell" - "sold".

"Write" - "written".

I had written.

Okay?

Now, the one word you might want to pay attention to is this word: read.

Very interesting irregular verb, because in the base form of the verb, we say "read",

but in the past simple, we say "read", like the color red.

And also, this third form, the past participle form, is "read".

So, you pronounce this like the color red, but you spell it exactly the same.

I know it doesn't make sense, but that's how it is, okay?

So, let's just say these again quickly.

Been, had, made, known, thought, bought, sold, written, read.

Okay, that's great.

Now, let's practice what we've learned.

So, I have four sentences on the board and whatever is written in blue, the verbs that

are written in blue, you're going to change those into the past perfect tense, alright?

So, let's begin.

"Before the plane took off, the passengers (find)_________ their seats, (switch)__________

off their phones, and (buckle)________ their seat belts."

Okay, that's what it says right now, but we're going to change it.

So, before the plane took off, the passengers - put it into past perfect.

"Find" becomes "had found".

This is an irregular verb, had found.

"Switch", regular verb, "had found their seats, had switched - had switched off their phones".

"Buckle", it's a regular verb, it ends with e, so we will say, "had buckled their seatbelts."

Let's read it again: Before the plane took off, the passengers had found their seats,

had switched off their phones, and had buckled their seatbelts."

Okay?

Good.

Number two: By the time we got home, the ice cream (melt)________.

Use the verb melt, melt, okay?

The ice cream - what will we say?

"Had melted."

Okay?

Good.

Excellent.

It - let's read the whole thing first.

"It (stop)_________ snowing before we landed."

Put it into past perfect.

"It", yes, "had stopped", remember this is one of those verbs, c-v-c.

It's not always like that, but most of the time, it is.

Okay?

It had stopped snowing before we landed.

Number four: Before the babysitter arrived - who is the babysitter?

A person who looks after children when, maybe their family is away, or the parents are away.

Before the babysitter arrived, the kids - which means the children - (go) _______ to bed,

but (not go) ________ to sleep, which happens with kids, alright?

So, what can we say?

Before the babysitter arrived, the kids - put "go" into past perfect - "had gone", very

good.

The kids had gone to bed, but "not go", make it negative now.

So instead of "had go", the kids had gone to bed, but hadn't gone to sleep.

Okay?

So here, we have the positive version and we have the negative one.

Let's say it again: Before the babysitter arrived, the kids had gone to bed, but hadn't

gone to sleep.

Alright.

So, this was a little bit of practice to see how well you've understood whatever we've

been learning.

Now, let's look at common mistakes that are often made when using the past perfect tense.

So, what I've done is I've written two sentences on the board in each case, and what I'd like

you to do with me is to find out which one is right and which one is wrong, and then

try to understand what's wrong.

Okay?

So, let's start with number one: We had went to the mall.

Or: We had gone to the mall.

Which is right and which is wrong?

Okay.

I think I hear you.

So, this is wrong and this right.

Because we have to say "We had gone", not the other one, which we won't say anymore.

Okay.

Number two: Who had planed the party?

Or the next one: Who had planned the party?

So, what's the mistake there?

So, this time, this is wrong and this is right.

But, did you realize why?

Because of spelling.

So, this is the correct spelling and this is wrong, because it's missing the double

n.

So, in this case, it was a spelling mistake.

In the first case, when we needed to say "We had gone", it was the verb mistake.

The form of the verb was wrong, because with "go", we would say "go, went, and gone".

But we need that third form, not the second one.

So, sometimes the verb form is wrong.

Okay?

Good.

Let's look at number three: They had'nt been there before.

They hadn't been there before.

Now, when I say it, it sounds exactly the same, but look carefully.

Tell me what's wrong.

These are contractions, and we have to be very careful with the spelling of the contractions.

So, which one is right?

This one, or this one?

Well, the second one is right and the first one is wrong.

It should be "hadn't", because it's "not", and where we took out the o, we put the apostrophe,

but this student was wrong because the put the apostrophe in the wrong place.

But not you, because you know better now.

Okay.

Number four: Had you seen that movie before?

That's fine.

Let's look at some short answers now.

So, this person answered: Yes, I seen.

And the other person said: Yes, I had.

The question again: Had you seen that movie before?

Yes, I seen, or Yes, I had?

Okay, so the correct answer is "Yes, I had".

This is wrong, okay, because remember, this comes here, okay?

That's correct, that's the right short answer.

And let's look at what it should be if it was negative.

So: Had you seen that movie before?

No, I didn't, or No, I hadn't?

Okay, so again, this is correct.

This is wrong.

Why?

This is past simple.

We don't - but the question was not in the past simple.

The question was in the past perfect.

So again, the "had" comes over here, and this becomes correct.

So, you have to be careful also with the short answer.

That's another area where mistakes can be made.

And the last one says: When we arrived, he went out already.

Or: When we arrived, he had already gone out.

Which is correct?

So here, it would be this one, right?

This is wrong, because "he had already gone" is the correct tense, alright?

So here we go.

This one, again, not "went", but "gone".

He had gone.

Alright?

So, these are some of the forms that are - some of the mistakes that are made when using the

past perfect tense.

Be careful of your verb, to use the right verb to begin with, be careful of the spelling,

the contraction, the short answer, and the tense.

So, to review, you know the past perfect tense when you know when to use it and how to use

it.

And how do we use it?

When you can make a positive sentence, a negative sentence, and a question easily and quickly.

For example: They had called.

They hadn't called.

Had they called?

That's with a regular verb, right?

Called.

And we should be able to do the same thing with the irregular verb.

For example: He had paid.

He hadn't paid.

Had he paid?

Right?

So, when you can do that, when you can move comfortably and easily and correctly between

these three, then you've got that, okay?

And when you understand that the past perfect tense is basically talking about two or more

actions that happened in the past, and you want to show that one of them happened first.

Whether it says so in the sentence or it's understood in the question, it will still

be referring to two or more actions, and one of them happened first and the one that happened

first, you express in the past perfect tense, alright?

If you've reached this this stage, it's a great stage to be at in terms of your English

study.

It's a very good level to reach, so feel really good about that.

Feel proud of yourself, and do some more practice.

Write some sentences about yourself and your life.

Say, "Before I left home this morning, I had" then put down some common things that you

do before you leave home, or "Before I left work today, I had", you probably have a long

list, right?

I had sent emails, I had talked to my boss, different things, alright?

So, write some sentences like that about your own life, and it will help these tenses to

come to life, and for you to use them in the future with confidence, alright?

And whenever you're ready, remember this is a series, this is a series of classes so that

you can move forward by learning the English tenses.

So, when you're ready, go on, watch the next video in the series, and it will help you

to keep making progress, alright?

If you'd like a little more review on this, you can do two things.

First, you can go back and watch the video again.

Watch any sections you weren't sure about, that's fine.

Make sure you've really understood, because we've covered everything you need to know

here, so it gives you the chance to know everything.

And if you'd like to, you can go to www.engvid.com where you can do a quiz on this tense.

So, thanks very much for watching, and all the best with your English.