UNIT 3: PACO HAD NEVER THOUGHT OF HIS HERITAGE BEFORE

PAST PERFECT

FORM

Positive Negative Yes / No questions

I had finished. I had not finished. Had I finished?

You had finished. You had not finished. Had you finished?
We had finished. We had not finished. Had we finished?
They had finished. They had not finished. Had they finished?
He had finished. He had not finished. Had he finished?
She had finished. She had not finished. Had she finished?
It had finished. It had not finished. Had it finished?

had=’d had not=hadn’t

Wh- questions

Wh- +had + subject + past participle + …?

Where had you seen that film? I had seen it in London.

Who had you met? I had met them.

Who / What + had + past participle + …?

Who had broken the vase? My sister had broken it.

What had happened? An earthquake had happened.

USE

• A completed action which took place before another past action (past simple).

John had returned from his walk before I arrived.

• Time expressions: already, by the time, after, before, until, never, just.

When we arrived, they had already had dinner.

Paco had visited ten towns by the time he finished his trip.

Paco didn’t go to Tokyo until he had taken a course in Japanese.

They went to Madrid after they had left Toledo.

I had only studied a little French before I went to Paris.

We had never met before.

When Peter saw me, I had just arrived in Madrid.

 THE PASSIVE VOICE

FORM

BE (correct form) + PAST PARTICIPLE (main verb)

TENSE ACTIVE PASSIVE

Present simple Lady Gaga signs many autographs. Many autographs are signed
by Lady Gaga.
Present Lady Gaga is signing many Many autographs are being
Continuous autographs. signed by Lady Gaga.
Past Simple Lady Gaga signed many Many autographs were signed
autographs. by Lady Gaga.
Past Continuous Lady Gaga was signing many Many autographs were being
autographs. signed by Lady Gaga.
Present Perfect S. Lady Gaga has signed many Many autographs have been
autographs. signed by Lady Gaga.
Past Perfect S. Lady Gaga had signed many Many autographs had been
autographs. signed by Lady Gaga.
Future Simple Lady Gaga will sign many Many autographs will be
autographs. signed by Lady Gaga.
Modals Lady Gaga should sign many Many autographs should be
autographs. signed by Lady Gaga.
Have to Lady Gaga has to sign many Many autographs have to be
autographs. signed by Lady Gaga.
Be going to Lady Gaga is going to sign many Many autographs are going to
autographs. be signed by Lady Gaga.

USE

• The passive is used when it is not so important who or what did the action.

Somebody built this palace in 1923.

This palace was built in 1923.

• If you want to say who did or what caused the action, use by (agent).

This palace was built by my grandfather.

Have you ever been bitten by a dog?

• Some verbs can have two objects: offer, ask, tell, give, send, show, lend, teach,
pay, …

They had offered two front-row seats to the couple.

The couple had been offered two front-row seats.
Two front-row seats had been offered to the couple.

• You can use get instead of be in the passive to say that something happens to
someone or something. The action is not often planned, it happens by chance.

The dog got run over by a car. (=the dog was run over)
George is liked by everyone. (not “gets liked”)
 CAUSATIVE HAVE

HAVE / GET SOMETHING DONE

have / get (any tense); something (object); done (past participle)

• To say that we arrange for someone else to do something for us.

I repaired my guitar. (=I did it myself)

I had / got my guitar repaired.

✓ Get is used mainly in informal spoken English.

I think you should get your hair cut. (=have your hair cut)

• The word order is important.

have object past participle

I had my guitar repaired last week.
Where did you have your hair cut?
My friend is going to have her wedding made by a famous
dress designer.
Tom has just had a telephone installed in his flat.

• Have something done sometimes has a different meaning. It’s used to say that
something (often something not nice) happened to someone.

He had all his money stolen when he was on holiday.

George had his nose broken in a fight.

NEED + -ING

• Need + -ing = need to be done (so the meaning is passive)

This jacket is rather dirty. It needs cleaning. (= needs to be cleaned)

Do you think the grass needs cutting? (= needs to be cut)
The batteries in this radio need changing. (= need to be changed)
 READING

Virginia Woolf

The author of the so well-known To the Lighthouse and of the short story Paco read at the
hotel, Virginia Woolf, was born on January 25, 1882, in London. She was an English novelist,
essayist, publisher, feminist, and one of the foremost modernist literary figures of the 20th
century. Unfortunately, Virginia committed suicide on March 28, 1941. In a note she left to
her husband she wrote:

I feel certain that I am going mad again. I feel we can't go through another of those terrible
times. And I can't recover this time. I begin to hear voices, and I can't concentrate, so I am
doing what seems the best thing to do. You have given me the greatest possible happiness.
You have been in every way all that anyone could be. I don't think two people could have
been happier 'til this terrible disease came. I can't fight any longer. I know that I am spoiling
your life, that without me you could work. And you will I know. You see I can't even write this
properly. I can't read. What I want to say is I owe all the happiness of my life to you. You
have been entirely patient with me and incredibly good. I want to say that — everybody
knows it. If anybody could have saved me it would have been you. Everything has gone from
me but the certainty of your goodness. I can't go on spoiling your life any longer. I don't
think two people could have been happier than we have been.

Newspapers

Which was the first newspaper in the world? There is some debate over which publication was
the first newspaper because the definition of a newspaper has always been quite flexible. In
ancient Rome, Acta Diurna, or government announcement bulletins, were made public by
Julius Caesar. They were carved on stone or metal and posted in public places. In China,
early government-produced news sheets, called tipao, circulated among court officials during
the late Han dynasty (second and third centuries AD). Between 713 and 734, the Kai Yuan Za
Bao of the Chinese Tang Dynasty published government news; it was handwritten on silk and
read by government officials. In 1582 there was the first reference to privately-published
news sheets in Beijing, during the late Ming Dynasty.