Course V: The Past Perfect

A. Making affirmative sentences:

Follow the following structure: Subject + had + past participle (-ed;-d – for regular
verbs; the past participle form for irregular verbs). For more information, check the
theoretical support.

1. When I arrived at the cinema, the film ________________________. (to start)

2. She ________________________ (to live) in China before she went to Thailand.
3. After they ________________________ (to eat) the shellfish, they began to feel sick.
4. If you ________________________ (to listen) to me, you would have got the job.
5. Julie didn’t arrive until after I ________________________. (to leave)
6. When we ________________________ (to finish) dinner, we went out.
7. The Garden was dead because it ________________________ (to be) dry all summer.
8. He ________________________ (to meet) her somewhere before.
9. We were late for the plane because we ________________________ (to forget) our
passports.
10. She told me she ________________________ (to study) a lot before the exam.

B. Making negative sentences:

Follow the following structure: Subject + had not + past participle (-ed;-d – for regular
verbs; the past participle form for irregular verbs). Additionally, you can use the
contracted form “hadn’t”.

1. The grass was yellow because it ________________________ (not/rain) all summer.

2. The lights went off because we ________________________ (not/pay) the electricity bill.
3. The children ________________________ (not/do) their homework, so they were in
trouble.
4. They ________________________ (not/eat) so we went to a restaurant.
5. We couldn’t go into the conceet because ________________________ (not/bring) our
tickets.
6. She said that she ________________________ (not/visit) the UK before.
7. Julie and Anne ________________________ (not/meet) before the party.

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8. I ________________________ (not/have) breakfast when we arrived.
9. He ________________________ (not/use) email before, so I showed him how to use it.
10. You ________________________ (not/study) for the test, so you were very nervous.

C. Making interrogative sentences:

Follow the following structure: Had + Subject + past participle (-ed;-d – for regular
verbs; the past participle form for irregular verbs). Don’t forget to put the auxiliary
verb had before the subject.

1. ________________________ (you/go) there before we went together?

2. ________________________ (she/see) the film already?
3. ________________________ (it/be) cold all week?
4. ________________________ (I/read) the book before the class?
5. When she arrived ________________________ (we/eat) already?
6. When you called, ________________________ (they/eat) dinner?
7. ________________________ (they/travel) by bullet train before?
8. ________________________ (John/ meet) Lucy before they worked together?
9. ________________________ (you/do) your homework before I saw you?
10. ________________________ (I/pay) the bill before we left?

D. Distinguishing between the Past Simple, Past Continuous and Past Pefect.
Don’t forget!
A. We use the Past Simple to talk about completed actions from the past. Oftentimes,
such actions are described through time expressions: in 1991, two years ago, last year.
Examples: John worked as a janitor in 2006.
He went to school 10 years ago.

B. We use the Past Continuous to emphasize the continuity/progress of an action from

the past – to highlight a process, not a singular action. Often we will have two parallel
actions from the past sepparated by the word While (în timp ce), or we might come
across a continuous action interrupted by a singular event (in the Simple Past tense
form) – here we would see the word when.

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Examples:
(to emphasize the continuity of an action) – I was working in the garden yesterday. (we can
deduce from the –ing form of the verb that the process of working is discussed- hence, we can
infer that the subject is tired today.
I was talking while you were listening.
When I was talking, someone entered the room. Someone entered the room when I was
talking.

C. We use the Past Perfect for completed actions that can be changed or perfected or for
life experiences that cannot repeat themselves. In order to use this verb tense, we would
need to have two instances from the past . The one that is furthest apart from the
present will take the past perfect form, while the other one, closer to the present
moment, will take the past simple.
Examples:
Dr. Kline is rich. She had worked (T1) as a neurosurgeon before she retired (T2) at the age
of 50. – a bridge between two time instances T1 and T2. The one that is furthest from the
present (or the first action done by the subject) is T1- she started her work- this takes the past
perfect form. The other one, closer to the present is T2- this takes the past simple. The perfect
tense allows us to understand the order of the events.

E. Exercise time! Choose the correct form:

1. Why did you change the channel? I _______that movie.

a) Watched
b) Was watching
c) Had watched
d) Had been watching

2. When I _____out of the shower, the light ____________.

a) Got/ were getting off
b) Had got/ were getting off
c) Was getting/ Went off
d) Had been getting/ had got off.

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3. When I saw Clara I realised that she _______ much in all those years.
a) Didn’t change
b) Wasn’t changing
c) Hadn’t changed
d) Hadn’t been changing

4. When he entered the room, somebody ______him in the head.

a) Hit
b) Was hitting
c) Had hit
d) Had been hitting

5. He admitted that he ______all the money from the box.

a) Took
b) Was taking
c) Had taken
d) Had been taking

6. The burglar ______to open the safe when he _____ the owner come in.
a) Was trying/ heard
b) Tried/ heard
c) Had been trying/ had heard
d) Tried / Was hearing

7. The plane in which the football team _______crashed and none of them survived.
a) Travelled
b) Were travelling
c) Had travelled
d) Had been travelling

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F. Choose the correct option to complete the text below (You can find the multiple
options after the text)

Many years ago I (1)________ to spend New Year’s Eve with my family. I (2) ________ new
year with my parents but I had nowhere to go, and being with my family seemed preferable to
being on my own.

When my parents (3) ________ the door I could see they (4) ________ and that they were
genuinely happy to see me. I (5) ________ addicted to heroin for 10 years, and for them,
seeing me was the confirmation that I wasn’t dead in an alley. Unfortunately, I (6) ________
nothing new or exciting to tell them, just the same sad stories. I (7) ________ from crappy job
to crappy job, being invariably sacked, and I (8) ________ to crime whenever I was out of
money. Same old, same old.

During dinner, I (9) ________ a few glassfuls of whisky. I (10) ________ something to make
ease the pain, because the whole evening my sisters (11) ________ at me with such contempt
that it was unbearable. My own sisters (12) ________ me. Then I had a moment of
realisation; I (13) ________ that they would never hate me as much as I hated myself.

When we finished dinner, I (14) ________ my glass. ”I’m going into rehab,” I said. My
parents (15) ________ at me with some kind of hope. Parents never lose hope. But my sisters
just (16) ________ down with disdain. They (17) ________ perfectly well that I had been in
rehab centers many times before, and that this time wouldn’t be different.

But this time it was different. After that day, I (18) ________ that look in my sisters’eyes
every day, every time! I (19) ________ to shoot some heroin. 10 years later, on a New Year’s
Eve, I thanked my sisters because they (20) ________ my life. They kissed me with their new
look in their eyes, the look of love.

1. A. Decided, B. Was deciding; C. Had decided

2. A. Didn’t normally spent; B. Wasn’t normally spending; C. Hadn’t normally spent
3.A. Opened; B. Were opening;
4.A. Smiled; B. Had smiled; C. Were smiling
5. A. Was; B. Had been; C. Was being.
6. A. Was having; B. Had Had; C. Had

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7. A. Was going; B. Went
8. B. Was resorting; C. Resorted
9. A. Was drinking up; B. Drank up; C. Had drink up
10. A. Was needing; B. Needed; C.Had needed
11. A. Had looked ; C.Looked
12. A. Were hating; B. Had hated; C. Hated
13. A. Was discovering; B. Had discovered; C.Discovered
14. A. Was raising; B. Had raised; C. Raised
15.A. Had looked; B. Had been looking; C. Looked
16. A. Had looked; B. Looked
17. A. Were knowing; B. Had known; C. Knew
18. A. Remembered; B. Was remembering; C. Had remembered
19. A. Had wanting; B. Wanted; C. Was wanting
20. B. Were saving; C. Had saved

G. Fill in the gaps with the most appropriate narrative tenses of the verbs in brackets:
past simple, past continuous, past perfect simple or past perfect continuous.

We thought that we were on the right path when suddenly we (1)____________ (run into) a
very familiar rock and (2)___________ (realise) that we (3)___________ (walk) in circles
for quite a long time. We (4)___________ (be) totally lost, and the fact that we
(5)___________ (already/finish) our water provisions wasn’t very promising.

We (6)___________(decide) to go uphill because according to John, it would be easier to

spot a way out from an elevated point. We (7)___________(learn) that from a documentary
he (8)___________ (see) about survival. But what the documentary (9)___________ (not
teach) John was that maybe it’s not such a good idea to go up a mountain when you are
exhausted and waterless.

We (10)___________(trek) one mile when we (11)___________ (started) to have a horrible

feeling that that might be our last trek. Of course, we (12) ___________ (say) anything, but
we could see in each other’s eyes that at that precise moment we (13) ___________ (think)

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precisely the same. We couldn’t walk any longer, so we (14) ___________ (decide) to sit and
rest, quietly, because neither of us wanted to share any of our gloomy thoughts.

”Hello, can I help you?” We suddenly (15)___________ (hear). We (16) ___________(raise)

our heads and (17)___________ (see) a little man with slanted eyes and a childish grin. He
(18) ___________ (stand) right next to us. I wondereed where he (19) ___________ (come)
from and how long he (20) ___________ (stand) here. But it didn’t matter really, because we
were safe.