📝 Student Instruction: Past Perfect Simple Tense

1. When do we use Past Perfect?

• To show that one action happened before another action in the past.
  • I had finished my homework before my mom came home.
• To talk about something that happened before a specific time in the past.
  • She had left by 8 o’clock.

2. Form

• Affirmative (+): Subject + had + past participle (V3)
  • I had eaten lunch before 2 p.m.
  • They had studied English before they moved to Canada.
• Negative (–): Subject + had not (hadn’t) + past participle
  • I hadn’t seen the movie before yesterday.
  • She hadn’t finished her work when I called her.
• Question (?): Had + subject + past participle
  • Had you studied English before 2010?
  • Had he left when you arrived?

3. Signal words

• before
• after
• already
• by the time
• when

4. Examples

• By the time the teacher arrived, the students had started working.
• She had never traveled by plane before last year.
• Had they eaten before the party started?

👉 Practice Example:
Change the verb into Past Perfect.

1. She (leave) before I arrived. → She had left before I arrived.
2. They (not finish) their homework by 9 p.m. → They hadn’t finished their homework by 9 p.m.
3. (you / see) the movie before last night? → Had you seen the movie before last night?