Past Perfect: Form, Uses and Examples

The past perfect has two parts: had and the past participle of the main verb. Had is the same for I, you, he, she, it, we and they, so this is one of the easiest English tenses to form.

Regular verbs make the past participle with -ed: work, worked; finish, finished. Many common verbs are irregular: go, gone; see, seen; eat, eaten; write, written; leave, left. Check them in our irregular verbs list.

For negatives, use hadn't (had not). For questions, put had before the subject: Had you ever been abroad before?

The main use of the past perfect is to show that one past action happened before another past action or before a time in the past. You can think of it as the past of the past.

Imagine a timeline. The story is in the past simple: I got to the station. Something happened even earlier, before that moment: the train had left. The past perfect tells the listener: this came first.

We often use it with when, by the time, already and just. By the time and already are especially common because they show that something was finished before a later moment.

The present perfect talks about experience up to now: I've never been to Rome. The past perfect does the same thing, but up to a moment in the past: Before 2020, I had never been to Rome.

This is common in stories with never, ever and before, and after a superlative or first: It was the best meal I had ever eaten. It was the first time she had driven on the left.

You do not need the past perfect every time you talk about two past actions. If you tell events in the order they happened, use the past simple: I got up, had a shower and went to work.

With before and after, the order is already clear, so the past simple is often fine: After I finished work, I went home. After I had finished work, I went home. Both are correct; the past perfect just makes the order extra clear.

But with when, the tense changes the meaning. When I arrived, she left means she left after I arrived. When I arrived, she had left means she left before I arrived, so I didn't see her. For the basic past tense, see the past simple guide, and for actions in progress see the past continuous.

The past perfect also appears in some important B1 and B2 structures.

In reported speech, the past simple and present perfect often move back to the past perfect: I lost my phone becomes She said she had lost her phone. See reported speech.

In wishes and regrets about the past: I wish I had studied harder. See wish and if only.

In the third conditional, which talks about an imaginary past: If I had known, I would have helped. See the third conditional.

The past perfect simple focuses on a completed action or result before a past moment: She had written three emails before lunch. The past perfect continuous (had been + -ing) focuses on an activity in progress and how long it lasted: She had been writing emails all morning, so she was tired.

As with other continuous forms, state verbs like know, believe and own stay in the simple form: I had known him for years.

In conversation, people use the past perfect most when they tell stories and explain what went wrong. Had is almost always shortened to 'd, and hadn't is very common: I'd forgotten, We hadn't realised, He'd already gone.

In fast speech, I'd and you'd can be hard to hear. Listen for the past participle: forgotten, gone, left. That word tells you it is the past perfect. The spelling realised is British; American English writes realized.