Page 80 - New Grammar with a Smile 5

16 Past Perfect Tense

Read these sentences and pay attention to the highlighted words.
y They had got stuck in a traffic jam.

y When we reached the platform, the train had left.

y They had tried their best to make it on time, but failed.
y We got late because we had waited outside the station for our relatives.

These sentences tell us that the actions were completed at some point in the past.

We use the past perfect tense to speak about an action that has already been
completed in the past.

Uses

We use the past perfect tense

1. to talk about an action that happened before another action in the past. For example,

y Bharat had gone out when I arrived in the office.
y She had cooked dinner before we arrived.

2. to talk about an action that had already happened before a certain time in the past.

For example,
y Everybody had had their breakfast by 8 o’clock.

y By early morning, Mum had finished cooking.

Note

Time expressions
by By 11 a.m. they had drunk four cups of tea.

already Suhita had already done the shopping when I called her.
after Leela phoned after you had left.
before We had driven twenty miles before we saw a petrol pump.

just I had just finished my homework when Mohan arrived.
ever/never They had never seen such a beautiful sunset in their lives.

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