Structure :
had+past participle
1. Time up to a point in the past
We use the past perfect simple (had + past participle) to talk about time up to a certain point in the past.
She'd published her first poem by the time she was eight.
We'd finished all the water before we were halfway up the mountain.
Had the parcel arrived when you called yesterday?
2. Past perfect for the earlier of two past actions
We can use the past perfect to show the order of two past events. The past perfect shows the earlier action and the past simple shows the later action.
When the police arrived, the thief had escaped.
It doesn't matter in which order we say the two events. The following sentence has the same meaning.
The thief had escaped when the police arrived.
Note that if there's only a single event, we don't use the past perfect, even if it happened a long time ago.
Ancient Spaniards also spoke Spanish.
3.Past perfect after before
We can also use before + past perfect to show that an action was not done or was incomplete when the past simple action happened.
We left before she had spoken to us.
Sadly, the author died before she'd finished the documentary series.
Adverbs
We often use the adverbs already (= 'before the specified time'), still (= as previously), just (= 'a very short time before the specified time'), ever (= 'at any time before the specified time') or never (= 'at no time before the specified time') with the past perfect.
He called her's office but she'd already left.
It still hadn't rained at the beginning of February.
I went to visit him when he'd just moved to Amsterdam.
It was the most beautiful photo I'd ever seen.
Had you ever visited Paris when you moved there?
I'd never met anyone from New York before I met Linda.
Posts
