How to Use the Past Perfect Tense in English - English Grammar Lesson

Hi, I’m Oli.

Welcome to Oxford Online English!

In this lesson, you can learn about the past perfect verb form.

What does the past perfect mean?

When do you need to use the past perfect?

How do you use the past perfect verb tense correctly in a conversation?

You’ll see the answers to these questions in this lesson.

If you’re watching on YouTube, remember to check out our website, too: Oxford Online

English dot com.

We have video lessons, quizzes to help you practise the topics in our videos, and free

listening lessons.

You can also take classes with one of our teachers, in case you need extra help with

your English.

One more thing: turn on subtitles now if you need them.

Click ‘CC’ in the bottom right of the video player if you need English subtitles.

Also, you can adjust the speed up or down if you need to.

Click on the settings button to change the playback speed.

Ready?

Let’s see how to use the past perfect verb form.

How was the wedding?

A disaster!

I’ve never seen anything go so wrong.

Why?

What happened?

First, they had booked a hall for the ceremony, but it was much too small.

Only 30 people could go in, and everyone else had to wait outside.

Really?

That’s weird.

I know!

Surely they knew how many people they had invited?

I guess not.

Sounds bad.

Yes, but that’s not all.

They’d booked a restaurant for the reception, but they hadn’t told them how many people

were coming.

So, there wasn’t enough food, either!

That’s not good.

And then, as if that wasn’t enough, there were so many long, boring speeches!

You could tell that no one had prepared their speeches, and they were just trying to improvise.

It just went on and on.

So, you’re hungry and listening to boring speeches for hours?

Doesn’t sound like much fun.

It wasn’t.

In the dialogue, you heard five examples of the past perfect.

Can you remember them?

Here they are.

Pause the video to read if you need more time.

Think about two questions.

One: how do you form the past perfect?

Two: what’s the difference between the past perfect and the past simple?

First, how do you form the past perfect?

You need ‘had’ or ‘hadn’t’ plus a past participle.

For example, ‘had gone’, ‘hadn’t prepared’, and so on.

‘Had’ can be contracted to apostrophe-d.

Be careful, because ‘would’ can also be contracted to apostrophe-d.

In spoken language and in informal writing, you should generally use contractions.

This is important, because if you don’t use the contractions, you won’t hear them

when other people use them.

What about the second question?

What’s the difference between the past perfect and the past simple?

To answer this, let’s look at an example from the dialogue.

‘They had booked a hall for the ceremony, but it was much too small.’

Here, you have the past perfect and the past simple

in the same sentence.

Can you explain why?

In the dialogue, we were talking about two different times in the past.

First, Kasia was telling me about a wedding she went to.

But, she also talked about things which happened – or didn’t happen – *before* the wedding.

She used the past simple to talk about the wedding itself.

I used the past simple to ask questions.

For example: I used the past perfect to talk about things

which happened *before* the wedding.

Look at the examples you saw before.

These are all things related to the preparations for the wedding, which took place earlier.

So, that’s the basic idea.

You use the past perfect when you’re talking about the past, and you need to talk about

something which happened – or didn’t – *before* the time in the past which you’re talking

about.

Let’s look at this idea in more detail.

I’m going to tell you a story.

This happened to me when I was twelve years old.

I was on holiday with my family, and we were walking in a forest.

My Dad had told me that there were bears in the forest, but I didn’t really take him

seriously.

I was walking in front; I turned a corner, and… there was a bear!

I had never seen such a big animal in the wild before.

I remembered something I had read about bears: you should stay calm and try to move away

slowly.

So, I walked backwards, very slowly.

Luckily, the bear didn’t seem to care that I was there.

Later, I felt scared, but at the same time I didn’t feel anything – I guess because everything

happened so quickly.

When you tell a story, you need to talk about several things that happened in a sequence.

For this, everything is simple.

Use the past simple if you’re talking about things which happened one after another

For example: ‘I bought a new car.

I took it for a drive.

I crashed it into a tree.’

However, you might want to talk about things which happened *before* the time of your story.

This is where you use the past perfect.

Look at the text of the story.

There are three examples of past perfect verbs.

Can you find them?

Pause the video if you want time to look.

Here are the three past perfect verbs.

They all refer to things which happened – or didn’t happen – before the time of the

story.

So, this is a common reason to use the past perfect: you’re telling a story, and you

need to refer back to times or events which happened *before* the time of the story.

Next, let’s look at when you might need the past perfect in an English conversation.

When did you start teaching?

Actually, it was kind of an accident.

It was 2005.

I had just graduated, and I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do.

So, I took a six-month teaching job, mostly because I wanted to live abroad and travel

a bit.

So, you didn’t want to teach?

Not really!

I had never considered it as a career.

Where did you move to?

Russia.

I had studied a little bit of Russian at university, but not enough to really be able to do anything.

So, I wanted to learn more, and also just experience living in Russia.

Had you ever lived abroad before?

Briefly.

I’d spent some time in Canada, but this was more challenging.

In the dialogue, there were five examples with the past perfect.

Did you hear them?

Remember: you can go back and listen to the dialogue again if you want.

Often, when you have a conversation or tell a story, you’ll see something which fixes

the time of the story.

In the dialogue, the first question fixes the time: ‘When did you start teaching?’

In Oli’s answer, there’s a more specific time reference: ‘in 2005’.

That means that the conversation is about the time I started teaching: 2005.

But, we also mentioned things that happened before that time.

Let’s practise this together.

Look at four sentences from the dialogue.

A question: do these things refer to 2005, or before 2005?

Sentences two and three refer to the time we were discussing: 2005, when he started

teaching.

Sentences one and four refer to an earlier time, before 2005.

You use the past perfect to talk about things which happened *before* the past time which

you’re talking about.

When you’re telling a story or having a conversation, you might refer to several different

points, which happened at different times.

So, it’s common to jump between the past simple and past perfect, like you saw in the

dialogue.

Here’s a good way to remember it: the past perfect is the ‘past in the past’.

You use it when you’re already talking about the past, and you want to refer to something

which is *further* in the past.

Many English learners understand these points, but they still have difficulties using the

past perfect correctly.

In the next section, let’s see why that is.

Were you late for work *again*?

Yeah…

What happened?

My alarm clock didn’t go off this morning.

So what time did you get there?

Around eleven.

Eleven?!

Why did you wake up so late?

I couldn’t fall asleep last night.

I probably got four hours of sleep.

Did you go to bed late?

Not really.

I think it was around twelve.

Did you hear the past perfect verb forms in the dialogue?

Trick question!

There were no past perfect forms.

But, why not?

In the dialogue, we refer to different time periods.

We start by talking about being late for work, but then we talk about earlier time periods:

the morning when Kasia woke up, and the previous evening.

So, again, why not use the past perfect?

There are places in the dialogue where it is *possible* to use the past perfect, but

it’s better not to.

The most important point is that the order of events, and when things happened, is clear.

For example, look at four lines from the dialogue.

You *could* say ‘Why had you woken up so late?’, and ‘I had probably only got four

hours of sleep’, but it’s not necessary, and it’s better not to – it sounds unnatural.

It’s not necessary because the order of events is clear from the context.

Obviously, I woke up before I went to work.

Equally obviously, I was asleep before I woke up.

When the order that things happened is clear, you don’t need to use the past perfect.

Another point: using the past perfect is generally less common in US English.

So, if you’re not sure whether to use the past perfect or not, ask yourself whether

it’s necessary to make it clear what happened when.

If not, use the past simple.

Sometimes, using the past perfect *is* necessary.

Let’s see an example.

Look at two sentences: ‘When I moved to the USA, I found a job.’

‘When I moved to the USA, I had found a job.’

These two sentences have different meanings.

What’s the difference?

The first sentence means you moved to the USA first, and *then* you found a job, after

you moved.

The second sentence means you found a job *before* you moved.

In this case, it’s important to use the past perfect, because using the past simple

changes the meaning.

That’s all.

Thanks for watching!

See you next time!