Macmillan English Grammar

past perfect simple

(FORM)

past perfect

left. (past partieiple)

affirmative

1/ You / We / They / She / He / It had('d)

negative

1/ You / We / They / She / He / It had not (hadn't) left.

What

questio~

Had

had-

I / you / we / they / she / he / it

they

left?

found?

short answers

Yes, 1/ you / we / they / she / he / it had.

No, hadn't.

®

Use past perfeet simple to deseribe a past event whieh happens before another event in the past. Only

use it when it is important to make elear that one event in the past happened before another.

On 12 July1771,Cook's shipThe Endeavourarrived back in Britain. Cook had not

discovered a new continent, but he had visited places never seen before.

In this example, 'not discovered' happened before 'arrived'.

___ .e.a~:t:..e.erfeetevent past simple event __

E'ASI~' _":;'~." .... ..•••.. ~--"... - - PRESENT

(a)Cook had not discovered ... (b)the ship arrived back in Britain

We do not use past perfeet simple simply to show that an event happened a very long time ago.

We ean sometimes usebefore arafter with past simple to make the order of events elear.

By the time the ship reached the island, more then twenty sailors had died.

More than twenty sailors died before the ship reached the island.

forgot, remembered, realized

With forgot, remembered, realized, knew, we use past perfeet simple to deseribe the past events that

happened before the moment we forgot, remembered ar realised something.

When Franklin checked the ship's position, he realized he had made amistake.

(FORM)

past perfect continuous

affirmative

I / You / We IThey / She / He / It had been waiting.

negative

fi

1/ You / We / They / She / He / It had not (hadn't) been waiting.