Section outline

  • Past Perfect Tense refers to actions that have been completed in the past.

    To form past perfect tense:

    Type of sentence Verb Examples
    Affirmative had + past participle She had invited me for dinner.
    Negative hadn't + past participle Jane hadn’t gone to school.
    Interrogative had + subject + past participle Had they arrived for the game?

    For more information on past participle, click here.

    Use:

    To express Examples
    Sequence of events happened in the past. We had left the party before they arrived.
    A condition with its result. If I had slept on time, I would have reached the event on time.
    An event occurred short time before (used with 'just') The doctor had left for the day just before I arrived.