Learn English Tenses: PAST PERFECT

2,264,390 views ・ 2020-05-21

Learn English with Rebecca


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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In this class, you will learn all about the past perfect tense.
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Now, this tense is an advanced tense, but it's not hard to learn.
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We're going to make it easy, because this tense will actually allow you to talk about
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things that have happened in the past in a much more interesting and powerful way, alright?
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Now, this class is part of the series created by www.engvid.com to help you master all of
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the English verb tenses, step by step, okay?
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So, are you ready to begin?
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Let's go.
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So, the past perfect tense is sometimes called the past of the past.
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Let me explain why.
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So, let's look at this timeline, alright?
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So, this is now and let's say it's 11:00.
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So, everything before that is in the past.
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So, if we look at these sentences, we could say, "The meeting started at 9:00", okay?
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This is one sentence right now.
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Here's another sentence, "We arrived at 10:00."
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Now, right now, this is not past perfect.
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These are just two simple sentences in the simple past, or the past simple, right?
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The meeting started, we arrived, these are past simple sentences, and they're two separate
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sentences.
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But we are now going to connect them in a certain way.
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Let me show you.
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So, the past perfect sentence would be like this, "When we arrived", right, at 10:00,
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"the meeting had started."
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So, "had started" is the past perfect tense.
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So, what does this tense allow us to do that this one did not allow us to do?
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What it did is it allows us to show or talk about two or more things that happened in
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the past and we want to show which of those things happened first in the past.
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Alright?
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So, in this case, what happened first?
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9:00 or 10:00?
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Okay?
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The meeting started at 9:00, that happened first.
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So, whatever happened first, we express in the past perfect tense.
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The other part of the sentence, if you have it, can be just in the past simple tense,
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"we arrived".
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But when we want to show what happened first, we use the past perfect tense.
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So again, we use the past perfect tense when we're talking about two or more things, both
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of which happened in the past, and we want to show which of them happened first in the
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past.
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The one which happened first is the one where we use the past perfect tense, like here.
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So, now, let's just look very quickly and basically at the structure of this tense.
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It's easy.
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So, we have the subject, I, You, We, They, He, She, It, doesn't matter, and with all
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of them, you only have to learn one helping verb, "had".
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It's the verb "have" in the past tense, and then to that, we add the third form of the
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verb or what is called the past participle.
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Right now, don't worry about all that.
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We're going to go through all of that as we go along.
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But I've just written a few examples so you can see it.
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So, it would sound like this and look like this: I had worked.
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That's if it's a regular verb.
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Or, "I had gone", that's an example of an irregular verb.
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Okay?
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So, these are the basics and now we'll understand more as we go along.
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Now, let's look at when we use the past perfect tense.
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So, we use it to talk about two or more things that happened in the past, and we want to
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show which of those things happened first.
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So, when we say "first", that "first" or before can mean a short time ago, a long time ago,
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or mixed times.
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Okay?
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Let's look at some examples.
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So, we have this example: Before the guests arrived, some things had been done, right?
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So, we can say: Before the guests arrived, we had cleaned the house.
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"Had cleaned", past perfect.
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We had ordered pizza.
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"Had ordered", and we had made dessert, okay?
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So, this part is in past simple, just that word "arrived", that doesn't matter for what
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we are focusing on.
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But this part matters.
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These are the parts which are the past perfect, and by saying "had cleaned", "had ordered",
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and "had made", we know that the person did those things before the guests arrived, alright?
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Now, one point.
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In order for you to learn it, I am writing each time, "We had cleaned", "We had ordered",
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"We had made", but it is possible that, in real life, when you're writing these sentences,
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you could just say the "had" once.
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So, for example, you could say, "We had cleaned the house", and this "had" is going to go
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for everything.
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"We had cleaned the house, ordered pizza, and made dessert".
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But when you say that, by putting the "had" first, it means we had cleaned, we had ordered,
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and we had made, okay?
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But you can also write it as many times as you need to, it's not a problem.
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Let's look at another example: By the time Maria moved to Canada, she had done some things,
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right?
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So, let's see what they are.
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She had graduated from university, "had graduated", past perfect.
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She had learned English, "had learned", and she had worked as a teacher, "had worked".
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Okay?
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So again, this part with "had graduated, had learned, had worked" is the past perfect tense.
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And this part is the past simple.
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That's okay.
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Now, in this case, we had three regular verbs, alright?
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In this case, this was regular, "cleaned" is regular, "ordered" is regular, but "made"
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was irregular, so we had to use that third form, which we're going to look at a little
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bit more later.
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Let's take one last example: When the president came to power, the economy had improved - so
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we see here, "had improved", the currency had strengthened, and unemployment had decreased.
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So, the economy had improved means it had become better.
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The currency - currency means what?
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Like the dollar, the euro, the pound, okay?
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The currency had strengthened, means it became stronger.
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And unemployment - the number of people not working, had decreased.
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It had gone down.
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So, again, this tells us that these things had already happened when the president came
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to power, okay?
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Now, another point is that when you have this kind of sentence and you want to use past
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perfect, then you don't have to always have two parts of the sentence.
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Sometimes, somebody might have asked you a question and you're just giving the answer.
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So, if someone says, for example, "What was the situation when the president came to power?"
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So then, you could just say, "Well, the economy had improved, the currency had strengthened,
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and unemployment had decreased."
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But you're saying that in the context of the question that was asked earlier.
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So, these are the main ways in which we use the past perfect, and when we use it.
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Now, let's look at how we form the past perfect tense.
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So, the basic structure is this: subject + had + past participle.
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What does that mean?
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Subject means one of these words, like I, You, We, They, He, She, It, or anything else
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like Mr. Jones or the school, or something like that.
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Then you have the helping verb "had", only "had", that's the form you use for everything,
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all the subjects.
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And then, you have to add the verb in the past participle.
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What does that mean?
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Well, it's different for a regular verb and for an irregular verb.
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For a regular verb, the past participle is just the same form that you would use in the
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regular past simple tense.
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Like, "work" becomes "worked", right?
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"Dance" becomes "danced".
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"Study" - "studied".
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These are regular verbs, right?
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And in the past tense, those past simple tense, those are their forms and that's the same
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past participle form that we use here, okay?
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With the regular verbs.
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Now, with the irregular verbs, you do have to learn what that past participle form is.
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Why?
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Because with the irregular verbs, it changes.
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It often changes or sometimes it doesn't change and so on.
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There are all kinds of unusual combinations and changes which you have to learn and which
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you probably already heard a lot and you know.
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You probably know many of them.
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And if you don't know many of them, any good grammar book will usually have a list of these
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kind of irregular verbs, or you can look them up online.
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So, examples of the past participle of an irregular verb are verbs like the verb "to
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go", right?
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That's the regular, that's the base form of the verb.
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In the past tense, it becomes "went".
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Go - went.
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And in the third form, which we need here, it becomes "gone".
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Go, went, gone.
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So, we're looking for that third form, right?
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Seen, saw, seen, like that, alright?
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Do, did, done.
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So, you need to learn that third form.
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But once you know it, then it's easy to use this tense.
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Alright.
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So, let's look now at three situations.
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The positive sentence, a negative sentence, and a question.
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Okay?
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So, in the positive sentence, you would just use the subject and say "had worked".
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For example, "I had worked".
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Say it after me: You had worked.
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We had worked.
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They had worked.
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He had worked.
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She had worked, and it had worked.
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Okay, "it" is a thing, like a computer or a phone or an air conditioner or something,
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okay?
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And the same thing with an irregular verb, like "I had gone".
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So, if we had a sentence, we could have said, for example, "Before he went home yesterday,
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he had worked for ten hours."
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Okay?
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Or, "When I called her, she had gone to the supermarket."
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Okay?
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So, that's how we could use that.
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Next, in a negative sentence, we would simply - we're basically adding "not" to this.
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Instead of saying "had worked", we are saying "had not worked".
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I had not worked, you had not worked, we had not worked, and so on, okay?
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And if you want to shorten it, which very often we do, especially when - in regular
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conversation, we don't say, "I had not worked", we say "I hadn't.
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So, let's repeat that: I hadn't worked.
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I hadn't gone.
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Okay?
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And it would be the same for all of the subjects, okay, in the negative form.
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Now, let's look at the questions.
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As we know, when it's a question, we have to change the order.
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So now, we start with "had".
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Had you worked for eight hours yesterday when I called you?
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Okay, something like that.
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Alright?
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Or, "Had they gone home already when you arrived?"
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Okay?
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So, had I worked, had you worked, had we worked, had they worked, had he worked, had she worked,
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had they worked?
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Now, when you're saying this word, make sure you're saying the ending correctly.
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Worked.
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Gone.
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Don't shorten it because otherwise it will sound like your grammar is wrong, because
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of the pronunciation, okay?
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So, another thing to keep in mind is that if you need to add a question word, you would
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add it here.
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For example, you could say - then it would become "Where had", "Where had you worked
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before you joined this company?"
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Okay?
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For example, right?
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Who had you worked with?
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When had you worked there?
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Okay?
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So, anytime you're adding that question word, that's fine, but just make sure you keep this
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structure.
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Where had you worked, not where you had worked, where had you worked?
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Where had you gone?
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Okay?
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That's it.
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Now, I want to point out a special situation which you have to get used to, because it's
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going to sound really strange if you haven't heard it already, which is like here, what
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was our base verb?
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Work.
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And here, it was "go", right?
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But sometimes, the verb itself that you want to use is the verb "to have".
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Now, so that means you have to use the subject, you have to use "had" always, but now this
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verb itself is the verb "to have".
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For example, in the expression, "To have breakfast".
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That's the expression.
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So, if you want to use this verb in the past perfect form, you'd have to say, "I had had",
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okay?
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So, it will sound like this, and be written like this: I had had breakfast.
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When I left home, I had already had breakfast.
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Or: When I left home, I had had breakfast.
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And it might sound really strange to you.
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You say, "Really?
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We have to say had had?
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We have to say it twice?"
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Yes, we do.
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Because it's just following the same rule.
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You just take the verb and you put it into the past participle form, and in this case,
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that becomes had.
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And so, you might see these strange kind of sentences in English, where we say, "I had
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had".
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Or, if it's negative, it would be, "I hadn't had breakfast when I left home", or you could
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ask somebody, "Have you had breakfast when you went home?"
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Alright?
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Or when you left the house?
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Okay?
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Something like that.
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So, just remember that there is this little strange one with the verb "to have".
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And that's basically how you construct the past perfect tense.
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Now, let's look at some common words and expressions that we use with the past perfect tense.
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So, number one: Before we moved, we had already sold the house.
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So, which part is the past perfect?
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This part: had already sold.
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Had sold, right?
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And the word that's often used is "already".
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Okay?
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So, you might see this word used very often and it kind of makes sense when we're trying
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to express the idea that something happened before something else.
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Alright?
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Next, number two: When she arrived home, she hadn't heard the news yet.
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So, let's find the past perfect part.
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She had not heard, that's the past perfect, and the word, the expression is "yet".
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It means till that time.
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Okay?
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Or, before that time.
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Now, I've written these sentences in a particular way.
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I put this part in one line and then the past perfect part in a second line, but in real
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life, you wouldn't write like that.
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You would just continue the sentence normally, but I just divided like that so you can see
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it more easily, alright?
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Okay.
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18:11
Now, number three: At the time I joined the company, I had been a salesperson for five
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years.
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18:20
So, where's the past perfect?
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I had been, okay?
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18:29
I had been - this is the past participle form of which verb?
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The verb "to be".
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I am, I was, I have been or I had been, alright?
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18:43
So, the word that is used frequently with this is the word "for".
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"For" always tells us the period of time, for how long?
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For five years.
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Alright?
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Another one: He had lived in New York since 2018.
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Or, we could say, "He had lived in New York since he was a child."
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So, let's find the past perfect first.
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He had lived, right, regular verb here, and the word, the common word that's used often
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is "since".
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Alright, we have it here or here.
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So, "since 2018", so it's always since + a point in time.
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For + a period of time or a length of time.
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19:37
But since + a point in time.
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Since 2018.
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Since he was a child, okay?
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That point in time when he was a child.
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Alright.
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19:49
Next, number five: Before they visited the U.S., they had never seen snow.
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So, where is the past perfect?
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Here: had seen, but in this case, had never seen.
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So, "never" is another word, okay, that we can use.
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Sometimes, we also use the word "ever".
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For example, "Had they ever seen snow before they visited the U.S.? Okay?
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You can use it that way as well.
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But "ever" and "never".
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These are other common expressions that we frequently use with this tense.
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20:34
Now, also, one small point.
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20:36
A lot of people make this little mistake.
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20:38
It has nothing to do with the past perfect tense, it just has to do with good English.
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20:42
So, you need to say "before they visited the U.S.".
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20:45
Many people say "before they visited U.S." which is short for the United States.
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But you need to say "the U.S." the United States, alright?
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20:54
Don't forget that little word, that article.
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20:58
Number six: We had just had lunch when our friends dropped in.
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21:03
Okay.
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21:04
Now, first of all, where's the past perfect?
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21:09
Here, right?
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It's one of those slightly weird ones, where we said "had had", because we're talking about
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21:17
lunch, right?
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21:18
To have lunch, to have breakfast, to have dinner, to have a snack, to have some coffee,
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21:24
to have some tea.
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21:25
We have this expression with lots of food and drink, alright?
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21:30
But the common expression here is the word "just".
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21:35
We had just had lunch means a very short time ago, before or when our friends dropped in.
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What does that mean, they dropped in?
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21:46
It's an expression too.
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21:47
They didn't drop.
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They didn't fall from somewhere, no.
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21:51
When friends drop in, it means they came usually to your house without an appointment or without
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21:59
being invited, they just were in the neighborhood and they decided to see you and they knocked
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22:04
on your door.
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22:05
It doesn't happen too much in North America, but it can happen with good friends.
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22:10
Alright?
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22:11
So, that is the meaning of "dropped in".
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22:15
But here, let's look over those key words and expressions.
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22:19
"Just", "never", "ever", "since", "for", "yet", and "already".
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22:30
Okay?
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22:31
So now, you already know how to use these.
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22:35
Now, let's look at some spelling changes we need to make when we create contractions when
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22:40
we shorten the words, and also let's see how to pronounce these contractions.
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So, this is the full form: I had worked.
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22:53
What does it become when we contract it or shorten it in regular conversation?
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22:58
It could be, "I'd worked".
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3340
23:01
Alright?
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23:02
So, first what we'll do is we'll look at the spelling and later, we'll go over the pronunciation.
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23:08
So, how did this become this?
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23:12
What did we do?
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23:13
We had to cancel this, add an apostrophe in the place where we removed the letters and
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23:22
then we joined these two words.
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23:24
So, "I had" becomes "I'd worked".
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23:28
So, very often, you'll hear people saying that, but when they're saying "I'd worked
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1408309
4980
23:33
a lot yesterday", that means they're using past perfect.
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1413289
5360
23:38
I had worked, alright?
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1418649
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23:41
So, the same thing will happen here: You had visited becomes "You'd".
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1421720
6500
23:48
We had seen - We'd seen.
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23:54
Don't worry, we'll go over them again for the pronunciation.
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23:56
First, just pay attention to the spelling.
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24:01
They had found - They'd found.
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24:06
He had left - He'd left.
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24:11
She had bought - She'd bought.
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24:14
Okay?
354
1454380
1000
24:15
We don't usually contract the "It had", we don't say that "It'd".
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24:19
It just sounds really weird, so we don't usually use that, alright?
356
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5751
24:24
So now, first, let's go over the pronunciation of this part, okay?
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4520
24:29
So, repeat after me: I'd worked.
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6229
24:35
You'd visited.
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24:39
Make sure when you're saying it that we can hear that "d" sound, because if you don't
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5801
24:44
hear that "d", then what does it sound like?
361
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2480
24:47
Just listen: You visited.
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3280
24:50
That's a different tense completely.
363
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1939
24:52
"You visited" is which one?
364
1492669
3370
24:56
Past simple.
365
1496039
1000
24:57
But "You'd visited" is "You had visited", is past perfect, which is what we are learning.
366
1497039
7221
25:04
Okay?
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1504260
1000
25:05
The next one: We'd seen.
368
1505260
5780
25:11
They'd found.
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3620
25:14
He'd left.
370
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3610
25:18
She'd bought.
371
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25:21
Okay?
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25:23
That's in the positive form.
373
1523700
1829
25:25
We can also contract it in the negative form.
374
1525529
3860
25:29
"I had not decided" becomes what?
375
1529389
4510
25:33
I hadn't decided.
376
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1740
25:35
So here, again, the o disappeared, the apostrophe came in its place, and these two words joined
377
1535639
9660
25:45
together to become "hadn't".
378
1545299
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25:47
So, let's say all of these together.
379
1547460
3320
25:50
I hadn't decided.
380
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4570
25:55
You hadn't visited.
381
1555350
4840
26:00
We'll make these negative, okay?
382
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2540
26:02
We hadn't seen.
383
1562730
3159
26:05
They hadn't found.
384
1565889
4750
26:10
Good, keep saying them.
385
1570639
3821
26:14
He hadn't left.
386
1574460
2870
26:17
And the last one: She hadn't bought.
387
1577330
5130
26:22
Okay?
388
1582460
1339
26:23
Good.
389
1583799
1340
26:25
Now you know the correct spelling and pronunciation of these, but let's just look here again.
390
1585139
6621
26:31
So, what happened here was that the "I had" became "I'd", right?
391
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4660
26:36
We saw that above there.
392
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3350
26:39
But what I want you to know is that "I'd" by itself doesn't have to be past perfect.
393
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9070
26:48
It could also be something else, and how do you know that?
394
1608840
3459
26:52
It depends on the rest of the sentence.
395
1612299
2230
26:54
Let's look at the example.
396
1614529
2061
26:56
So here, "I'd" could mean "I had returned the book already".
397
1616590
7150
27:03
That's our regular past perfect, right?
398
1623740
2520
27:06
Had returned.
399
1626260
1100
27:07
So here, if they said "I'd", it would mean "I had".
400
1627360
4210
27:11
But, if we use "I'd" here, it could also be short for "I would do anything for you."
401
1631570
10239
27:21
So, "I would", right, could also be shortened to "I'd".
402
1641809
7321
27:29
Okay?
403
1649130
1890
27:31
And "I had" can also be shortened to "I'd".
404
1651020
5639
27:36
And you know that, you know which one it stands for based on what happens after that, okay?
405
1656659
5951
27:42
So, these are the main points to keep in mind when you're writing in the past perfect and
406
1662610
5819
27:48
when you're speaking and wish to pronounce it properly.
407
1668429
3271
27:51
Now, let's look at how to give short answers using the past perfect tense.
408
1671700
5650
27:57
So, the first question: Had she finished the report?
409
1677350
4980
28:02
If somebody asks you, right?
410
1682330
1939
28:04
When you called her, had she finished the report?
411
1684269
3951
28:08
So you could just say, instead of giving the full answer and repeating the whole question
412
1688220
5870
28:14
again, we just use a short answer and we say either "Yes, she had", or "No, she hadn't".
413
1694090
8910
28:23
Alright?
414
1703000
1000
28:24
Remember that contraction?
415
1704000
1590
28:25
And how do you know what word to use?
416
1705590
3170
28:28
It's right there in your question, okay?
417
1708760
2790
28:31
"Yes, she had."
418
1711550
1489
28:33
"No, she hadn't."
419
1713039
2681
28:35
And what's important here is that this one, you cannot use any contraction.
420
1715720
5640
28:41
Alright?
421
1721360
1000
28:42
You'll have to say the full form.
422
1722360
2600
28:44
"Yes, she had", or "No, she hadn't".
423
1724960
4290
28:49
And here, we definitely do use the contraction, okay?
424
1729250
3309
28:52
You can say, "No, she had not", but that is when you're maybe - something a little angry
425
1732559
7600
29:00
or something is a little more serious, then we say it in full.
426
1740159
4081
29:04
But in regular conversation, we just say, "No, she hadn't".
427
1744240
3850
29:08
Okay, let's look at another example: Had the informed their clients - let's say - before
428
1748090
5819
29:13
the meeting, okay?
429
1753909
2360
29:16
Had they informed their clients means have they told their clients?
430
1756269
4400
29:20
So again, we do the same thing.
431
1760669
2321
29:22
We're using the word from the question itself, right?
432
1762990
3760
29:26
So, the answer will be "Yes, they had", or "No, they hadn't".
433
1766750
7700
29:34
Okay?
434
1774450
1930
29:36
Say it after me: Yes, they had.
435
1776380
3230
29:39
No, they hadn't.
436
1779610
2439
29:42
Good, good.
437
1782049
2000
29:44
Very nice.
438
1784049
2010
29:46
And then the last one: Had it happened before?
439
1786059
4621
29:50
Maybe like, this problem, okay?
440
1790680
2770
29:53
Had it happened before?
441
1793450
2540
29:55
So here, same thing, you can say, "Yes, it had", and you could also say "No, it hadn't".
442
1795990
10610
30:06
So, with the negative form, okay, we can use a contraction with "it".
443
1806600
6960
30:13
We don't use so much a contraction with the positive version.
444
1813560
3530
30:17
And here, in any case, we cannot use a contraction with the positive answer, but you can use
445
1817090
6459
30:23
it with the negative.
446
1823549
1431
30:24
So, we say "No, it hadn't".
447
1824980
2850
30:27
Say it after me: No, it hadn't.
448
1827830
3150
30:30
Okay!
449
1830980
1290
30:32
So, suppose I ask you, "Before you watched this lesson, had you understood the past perfect
450
1832270
8670
30:40
tense?"
451
1840940
2199
30:43
You could either say, "Yes, I had", because maybe you've already studied this tense before
452
1843139
4520
30:47
and you're reviewing.
453
1847659
1150
30:48
Or, you could say, "No, I hadn't".
454
1848809
4451
30:53
And that's how we give the short answers in this tense.
455
1853260
3379
30:56
Now, let's look at how to spell and pronounce some of the regular and irregular verbs that
456
1856639
6341
31:02
we need to use with the past perfect tense.
457
1862980
2949
31:05
So, of course, you can use any verb with the past perfect tense, but they're divided into
458
1865929
7990
31:13
two sections.
459
1873919
1411
31:15
The regular ones, where we usually add only -ed or -d or whatever, which we're going to
460
1875330
5319
31:20
look at.
461
1880649
1160
31:21
And the irregular ones, which might change completely, okay?
462
1881809
4360
31:26
So, let's start with the regular.
463
1886169
2081
31:28
So, for most regular verbs, all you have to do to make that third form, the past participle
464
1888250
7129
31:35
that you need to use, or the past simple form, which is the same thing, is to add -ed.
465
1895379
7680
31:43
So, "talk" becomes "talked", right?
466
1903059
3911
31:46
We just have that.
467
1906970
3400
31:50
"Watch" becomes "watched", okay?
468
1910370
3760
31:54
Say those two after me: talked, watched.
469
1914130
4960
31:59
Okay?
470
1919090
1350
32:00
In that case, they both ended with a "t" sound.
471
1920440
5200
32:05
Sometimes, the verb itself ends with an e already, then we don't need to add -ed, we
472
1925640
6739
32:12
just add -d.
473
1932379
1991
32:14
So, "live" becomes "lived".
474
1934370
4429
32:18
"Love" - "loved".
475
1938799
2861
32:21
So, we see here, we only added the -d.
476
1941660
4570
32:26
So, it would be "He had lived" in the past perfect, "He had loved".
477
1946230
6919
32:33
She had watched.
478
1953149
2051
32:35
We had talked.
479
1955200
1719
32:36
Like that, okay?
480
1956919
1681
32:38
Now, sometimes, you have a regular verb which ends with y, like this, and it has a consonant
481
1958600
7730
32:46
before.
482
1966330
1000
32:47
So then, what happens is we cancel this y and add -ied.
483
1967330
5589
32:52
"Cry" - "cried".
484
1972919
3451
32:56
"Study" - "studied", okay?
485
1976370
5179
33:01
Same thing here, okay?
486
1981549
2120
33:03
Say them after me: cried, studied.
487
1983669
5010
33:08
Good.
488
1988679
1411
33:10
And sometimes, we have a verb which has this kind of pattern, that when you look at the
489
1990090
6850
33:16
verb, right, from the end, it has consonant, vowel, consonant.
490
1996940
5770
33:22
A vowel in English is A, E, I, O or U, and a consonant is every other letter besides
491
2002710
7829
33:30
the vowels.
492
2010539
1230
33:31
So, if you look and you see a consonant and then a vowel and then a consonant, then very
493
2011769
7241
33:39
often, most of the time, we need to double the last letter.
494
2019010
5170
33:44
For example: "Stop" - "stopped", right?
495
2024180
4690
33:48
You see that?
496
2028870
1000
33:49
We added the -ed, but we need to double the last letter and then add -ed.
497
2029870
4490
33:54
Also, this word, again, c-v-c, right?
498
2034360
5049
33:59
"Plan" becomes "planned", okay?
499
2039409
3191
34:02
Good.
500
2042600
1049
34:03
You see that here.
501
2043649
1370
34:05
Say it after me: stopped, planned.
502
2045019
3691
34:08
Okay, good.
503
2048710
2100
34:10
So, those are some of the basic patterns, the more common patterns with the regular
504
2050810
5570
34:16
verbs.
505
2056380
1070
34:17
With irregular verbs, you kind of have to learn them, okay?
506
2057450
4570
34:22
You have to learn them by heart, you have to learn what they are, how to spell them,
507
2062020
3880
34:25
and so on.
508
2065900
1000
34:26
They do follow - they do fall into some categories or groups, and that can help you a little
509
2066900
7700
34:34
bit, but most of the time, you just learn them by listening, by reading and so on, okay?
510
2074600
6490
34:41
But, let's see what some of the more common ones are.
511
2081090
3330
34:44
So, "Be" becomes "been".
512
2084420
3800
34:48
I had been.
513
2088220
2230
34:50
"Have" becomes "had".
514
2090450
4540
34:54
I had had breakfast.
515
2094990
2140
34:57
Remember?
516
2097130
1140
34:58
You know that one now.
517
2098270
1710
34:59
You can even explain to someone why, in English, sometimes we say "had had", because of the
518
2099980
6460
35:06
past perfect tense!
519
2106440
1750
35:08
Okay.
520
2108190
1220
35:09
"Make" - "made".
521
2109410
2440
35:11
I had made.
522
2111850
2530
35:14
Sorry, "know" becomes "known", alright?
523
2114380
7080
35:21
So, I had known.
524
2121460
3580
35:25
We had known each other for a long time.
525
2125040
3750
35:28
"Think" becomes "thought".
526
2128790
4540
35:33
"Buy" - "bought".
527
2133330
4710
35:38
"Sell" - "sold".
528
2138040
4710
35:42
"Write" - "written".
529
2142750
4700
35:47
I had written.
530
2147450
1440
35:48
Okay?
531
2148890
1000
35:49
Now, the one word you might want to pay attention to is this word: read.
532
2149890
5830
35:55
Very interesting irregular verb, because in the base form of the verb, we say "read",
533
2155720
6560
36:02
but in the past simple, we say "read", like the color red.
534
2162280
5050
36:07
And also, this third form, the past participle form, is "read".
535
2167330
4540
36:11
So, you pronounce this like the color red, but you spell it exactly the same.
536
2171870
8270
36:20
I know it doesn't make sense, but that's how it is, okay?
537
2180140
4750
36:24
So, let's just say these again quickly.
538
2184890
3760
36:28
Been, had, made, known, thought, bought, sold, written, read.
539
2188650
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36:47
Okay, that's great.
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36:51
Now, let's practice what we've learned.
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36:54
So, I have four sentences on the board and whatever is written in blue, the verbs that
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are written in blue, you're going to change those into the past perfect tense, alright?
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37:08
So, let's begin.
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37:11
"Before the plane took off, the passengers (find)_________ their seats, (switch)__________
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37:22
off their phones, and (buckle)________ their seat belts."
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6240
37:28
Okay, that's what it says right now, but we're going to change it.
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37:33
So, before the plane took off, the passengers - put it into past perfect.
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37:40
"Find" becomes "had found".
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37:47
This is an irregular verb, had found.
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37:51
"Switch", regular verb, "had found their seats, had switched - had switched off their phones".
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38:05
"Buckle", it's a regular verb, it ends with e, so we will say, "had buckled their seatbelts."
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Let's read it again: Before the plane took off, the passengers had found their seats,
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38:24
had switched off their phones, and had buckled their seatbelts."
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4290
38:28
Okay?
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38:29
Good.
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38:30
Number two: By the time we got home, the ice cream (melt)________.
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38:37
Use the verb melt, melt, okay?
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2110
38:39
The ice cream - what will we say?
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38:45
"Had melted."
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38:47
Okay?
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Good.
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38:50
Excellent.
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38:51
It - let's read the whole thing first.
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38:57
"It (stop)_________ snowing before we landed."
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Put it into past perfect.
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39:05
"It", yes, "had stopped", remember this is one of those verbs, c-v-c.
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39:16
It's not always like that, but most of the time, it is.
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39:20
Okay?
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39:21
It had stopped snowing before we landed.
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39:25
Number four: Before the babysitter arrived - who is the babysitter?
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39:30
A person who looks after children when, maybe their family is away, or the parents are away.
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39:36
Before the babysitter arrived, the kids - which means the children - (go) _______ to bed,
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39:46
but (not go) ________ to sleep, which happens with kids, alright?
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39:51
So, what can we say?
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39:53
Before the babysitter arrived, the kids - put "go" into past perfect - "had gone", very
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40:06
good.
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40:07
The kids had gone to bed, but "not go", make it negative now.
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So instead of "had go", the kids had gone to bed, but hadn't gone to sleep.
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40:23
Okay?
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40:24
So here, we have the positive version and we have the negative one.
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40:28
Let's say it again: Before the babysitter arrived, the kids had gone to bed, but hadn't
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40:34
gone to sleep.
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40:36
Alright.
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40:37
So, this was a little bit of practice to see how well you've understood whatever we've
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40:42
been learning.
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40:43
Now, let's look at common mistakes that are often made when using the past perfect tense.
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So, what I've done is I've written two sentences on the board in each case, and what I'd like
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you to do with me is to find out which one is right and which one is wrong, and then
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try to understand what's wrong.
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41:04
Okay?
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41:05
So, let's start with number one: We had went to the mall.
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Or: We had gone to the mall.
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41:15
Which is right and which is wrong?
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41:18
Okay.
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41:19
I think I hear you.
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41:22
So, this is wrong and this right.
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41:27
Because we have to say "We had gone", not the other one, which we won't say anymore.
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41:34
Okay.
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41:36
Number two: Who had planed the party?
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Or the next one: Who had planned the party?
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So, what's the mistake there?
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So, this time, this is wrong and this is right.
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41:56
But, did you realize why?
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41:59
Because of spelling.
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42:02
So, this is the correct spelling and this is wrong, because it's missing the double
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42:07
n.
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42:08
So, in this case, it was a spelling mistake.
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42:13
In the first case, when we needed to say "We had gone", it was the verb mistake.
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The form of the verb was wrong, because with "go", we would say "go, went, and gone".
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42:25
But we need that third form, not the second one.
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42:28
So, sometimes the verb form is wrong.
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42:32
Okay?
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42:33
Good.
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42:34
Let's look at number three: They had'nt been there before.
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42:39
They hadn't been there before.
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42:41
Now, when I say it, it sounds exactly the same, but look carefully.
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42:47
Tell me what's wrong.
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2500
42:49
These are contractions, and we have to be very careful with the spelling of the contractions.
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42:56
So, which one is right?
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1950
42:58
This one, or this one?
621
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43:01
Well, the second one is right and the first one is wrong.
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43:08
It should be "hadn't", because it's "not", and where we took out the o, we put the apostrophe,
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43:14
but this student was wrong because the put the apostrophe in the wrong place.
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43:19
But not you, because you know better now.
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43:23
Okay.
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43:24
Number four: Had you seen that movie before?
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43:28
That's fine.
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43:29
Let's look at some short answers now.
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43:32
So, this person answered: Yes, I seen.
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43:37
And the other person said: Yes, I had.
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43:41
The question again: Had you seen that movie before?
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3530
43:45
Yes, I seen, or Yes, I had?
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43:49
Okay, so the correct answer is "Yes, I had".
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43:54
This is wrong, okay, because remember, this comes here, okay?
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43:59
That's correct, that's the right short answer.
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44:03
And let's look at what it should be if it was negative.
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44:07
So: Had you seen that movie before?
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44:10
No, I didn't, or No, I hadn't?
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44:15
Okay, so again, this is correct.
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44:20
This is wrong.
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44:21
Why?
642
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1000
44:22
This is past simple.
643
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1000
44:23
We don't - but the question was not in the past simple.
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44:26
The question was in the past perfect.
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44:28
So again, the "had" comes over here, and this becomes correct.
646
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44:33
So, you have to be careful also with the short answer.
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44:37
That's another area where mistakes can be made.
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44:40
And the last one says: When we arrived, he went out already.
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44:47
Or: When we arrived, he had already gone out.
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44:55
Which is correct?
651
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44:58
So here, it would be this one, right?
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45:03
This is wrong, because "he had already gone" is the correct tense, alright?
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45:11
So here we go.
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45:12
This one, again, not "went", but "gone".
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45:16
He had gone.
656
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45:17
Alright?
657
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45:18
So, these are some of the forms that are - some of the mistakes that are made when using the
658
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45:26
past perfect tense.
659
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45:28
Be careful of your verb, to use the right verb to begin with, be careful of the spelling,
660
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8240
45:36
the contraction, the short answer, and the tense.
661
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45:41
So, to review, you know the past perfect tense when you know when to use it and how to use
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45:48
it.
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45:49
And how do we use it?
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45:51
When you can make a positive sentence, a negative sentence, and a question easily and quickly.
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45:58
For example: They had called.
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46:01
They hadn't called.
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46:04
Had they called?
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46:06
That's with a regular verb, right?
669
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46:09
Called.
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46:10
And we should be able to do the same thing with the irregular verb.
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46:12
For example: He had paid.
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46:17
He hadn't paid.
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46:20
Had he paid?
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46:22
Right?
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46:23
So, when you can do that, when you can move comfortably and easily and correctly between
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46:28
these three, then you've got that, okay?
677
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46:31
And when you understand that the past perfect tense is basically talking about two or more
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46:36
actions that happened in the past, and you want to show that one of them happened first.
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6810
46:43
Whether it says so in the sentence or it's understood in the question, it will still
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46:49
be referring to two or more actions, and one of them happened first and the one that happened
681
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5200
46:54
first, you express in the past perfect tense, alright?
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47:00
If you've reached this this stage, it's a great stage to be at in terms of your English
683
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4310
47:04
study.
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47:05
It's a very good level to reach, so feel really good about that.
685
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47:09
Feel proud of yourself, and do some more practice.
686
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47:12
Write some sentences about yourself and your life.
687
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47:15
Say, "Before I left home this morning, I had" then put down some common things that you
688
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47:24
do before you leave home, or "Before I left work today, I had", you probably have a long
689
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47:31
list, right?
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1000
47:32
I had sent emails, I had talked to my boss, different things, alright?
691
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47:37
So, write some sentences like that about your own life, and it will help these tenses to
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47:42
come to life, and for you to use them in the future with confidence, alright?
693
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47:48
And whenever you're ready, remember this is a series, this is a series of classes so that
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47:56
you can move forward by learning the English tenses.
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47:58
So, when you're ready, go on, watch the next video in the series, and it will help you
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48:04
to keep making progress, alright?
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48:07
If you'd like a little more review on this, you can do two things.
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48:11
First, you can go back and watch the video again.
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48:15
Watch any sections you weren't sure about, that's fine.
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48:18
Make sure you've really understood, because we've covered everything you need to know
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48:22
here, so it gives you the chance to know everything.
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48:25
And if you'd like to, you can go to www.engvid.com where you can do a quiz on this tense.
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48:32
So, thanks very much for watching, and all the best with your English.
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3390
About this website

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