EOI Santa Coloma

C1 – Mo
October 2022
Past perfect
Vs.
Past simple

PAST PERFECT SIMPLE

This tense is used to sequence past events, especially to show which one happened first:

- She had (already) arrived1 in London when she got2 the phone call with the news.
- When she had read1 all her e-mails, she called2 everyone on the phone to say thank you.

In these two examples, we have two clauses (parts of the sentence), and each uses a different tense.
The past perfect conveys a sense of “past of the past”. It refers to time to a specific point in the past.
It is rare to find sentences with just the past perfect (“I had studied1 a lot”). We may hear them, but
they actually imply information that we already know and, for that reason, the speaker has not had
to mention it. In this case, the continuation for “I had studied a lot” could be “so I passed2 my exam!”

The past perfect is very common for reported speech:

- A neighbour explained2 to the journalists that the murderer had committed1 some minor
offences in the past.

It is also used to refer to situations which convey a change, a shift:

- We had planned1 to go skiing last weekend but our car broke down2.

The adverbs already and just are often used with the past perfect simple:

- I had just left1 the party when they arrived2!

- I had already heard1 the news when they called2 me.

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE WITH SENTENCES THAT INCLUDE TWO CLAUSES IN THE PAST SIMPLE?

Some of you may wonder what is the difference between a sentence with the formula “past
simple + past simple” and another one with “past perfect + past simple”. Let’s see:

- When she rang2, I felt2 relieved. à She calmed down as soon as she got the call.
Vs.
- I had (already) felt1 relieved when she rang2. à 1st) Worried in the past because something
might have happened, 2nd) been told that everything was OK, 3rd) a third person lets me
know that everything is OK but I already know it. Usually these sentences need context to
make some sense or we need to make up a story in our minds!

1 Past perfect (had + participle)

2 Past simple
3 Past perfect continuous (had + been + verb in “ing”)
EOI Santa Coloma
C1 – Mo
October 2022
Past perfect
Vs.
Past simple
PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS

As it happens with the past perfect (simple), we use the past perfect continuous for past actions but
that, in this case, continued for some time before another action in the past. This tense is used to
focus on the duration of the past action:

- I had been living3 in Barcelona for about a year when I met2 my friend Sara at a conference.
- When we came out2 of the cinema, we realized2 that it had been snowing3.

The adverb already is often used with the past perfect continuous:

- Mary had already been working2 for Microsoft when Apple got in touch2 with her.

1 Past perfect (had + participle)

2 Past simple
3 Past perfect continuous (had + been + verb in “ing”)