Past Perfect Simple

Affirmative	Negative
I had played You had played He had played She had played It had played We had played You had played They had played	I hadn’t played You hadn’t played He hadn’t played, etc.
	Interrogative
	Had I played? Had you played? Had he played? etc.

Use

We use the past perfect for:

• an action which happened before a stated time in the past.

He had cooked dinner by six o’clock in the evening. (He finished cooking before six o’clock.)

• an action which happened in the past before another past action. The action which happened earlier is in the past perfect, and the action which happened later is in the past simple.

He had packed his suitcase before he left the house. (He packed his suitcase first and then left the house.)

He mentioned that he hadn’t played piano for three years. (He didn’t play piano before he mentioned it.)

• an action which started and finished in the past and whose result was visible in the past.

She had injured her foot, so she couldn’t walk.

Time Expressions we use with the past perfect:

15 Listen to the tape-recording. Fill in the table. The example is given.

while	What was happening?	What happened?	because	What had happened before?
	I I) was playing in the sea.	I II) panicked and I II) started swallowing a lot of water.		I VI) had realized that I couldn’t feel the bottom.
	I 1) ___ ____ up to catch the ball.	I 2) ____ heavily on my left leg.		A player from the other team 3) ____ ___me over.
	I 4) ___ ____my dog one day and we 5) ___ ____ the field.	We 6) ____ away as fast as we 7) _____		The horse 8) ____ ____ towards us.
	I 9) ____ __ football	10) ___/___ my nose.		One of the players 11) ___ ___ me on the nose/it.
	I 12) ____ ___ tennis.	13) ____ my nose.		The ball I missed 14) ____ ____ me right on my nose.
	I 15) ____ ____ on the motorway in Spain we 16) _____ close to Barcelona.	I 17) ____ into the right-hand lane ready to turn off the motorway		this car 18) ___ ____ ___ next to me, 19) ___ ____ in front of me and 20) ___ ___on his brakes.