Past Perfect

July 31, 2025

This month’s episode breaks down the Past Perfect tense — a structure many learners avoid, but it’s incredibly useful when telling stories or talking about past experiences.

🟢 Example: “By the time I arrived, they had already left.”

I’ll guide you through how and when to use it, how to avoid common mistakes, and I’ll give you plenty of natural-sounding examples.

Episode Transcript

Past Perfect
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Hi everyone. Welcome back and if you're new to my channel, I want to especially welcome you. I hope you will find something helpful in this tutorial. Now this tutorial is actually part of a 12 verb tense series, so you can check that out in my playlist along with pronunciation videos. So today's video is actually focusing on past.

Perfect. We're going to look at what it is, its definition structures, forms, how we use the past perfect and differences and exceptions to the rules. So let's go ahead and get started. What is the past? Perfect. Now, as its name implies, it is an event that happens in the past, and because it's in the perfect tenses, it is something that has completed in the past, but with past perfect.

We're actually talking about two events. In the past, one event happens before another or one event happens and completes before a second event. And we use had we do not use has or have, it doesn't matter what your subject is, if it's singular or plural, you're always going to use had with the past.

Perfect. So let's go ahead and look at our formal definition here. So the past Perfect expresses an activity that was completed before another activity or activities or time in the past. So both activities have been completed in the past. They're not still happening in the present or as we're speaking of it, they're finished.

It's form is had. Plus the past participle. Now just to do a quick review. Remember the past participlele if it's a regular verb, we use ed. If it's an irregular verb, the word changes. Its form completely. Such as, "take" becomes taken. Write, wrote, written. Okay. Written is the past participle form.

If we have the verb of be it becomes been. Okay. So there's just something to remember with irregular verbs and the past participle. We talked about that before and some of our other videos. So let's look at an example. I had already studied chapter one before I began to study chapter two. So two events.

Okay. Study chapter one and study chapter two, the first event that fin that. Finished first is study chapter one. So I say had studied. Now sometimes we like to use adverbs, adverbs tell you know how much or to what extent. So we use that word. You might use the word "already", which means before the completed time.

Before the expected time, excuse me. So "already" means before the expected time. "I had already studied". Now, usually in this form we will place these adverbs between had and the past participle. If you forget and you say, I already had studied. Not a big deal. People will still understand you, for the most part we will put these adverbs between had and the past part of simple.

So just something else to keep in mind. Other adverbs might be never, we use never a lot, rarely, almost. Not actually never and not are both, negatives. So sometimes those adverbs will be used between had and the past participle. So let's look at one way we used past Perfect. It's basically our definition.

We use it with a completed action before something else in the past. Okay, so look at number one. I had already eaten by the time my parents came home, so two events in the past. I ate first and then my parents came home. So I have to say I had eaten or I had already eaten number two until yesterday.

Jill had never heard about the plan. So two events in the past. Yesterday and not heard about the plan. So we have that adverb of time until okay, so until yesterday. That means all the time in the past and all of Jill's experience in the past. She hadn't heard about the plan and then when yesterday came, that's when she heard about the plan at that point in time.

But all the time prior or previously before yesterday, she didn't know about the plan. So that's why we say until, okay, all the time before. We could say had not if we wanted to, but never really emphasizes, and it makes it clear that in all her experience and the time before, she had no knowledge about the plan.

So we say had never heard. Number three, "The thief simply walked in. Someone had forgotten to lock the door". So two events in the past. Someone forgot to lock the door first, then the thief walked in. Now, if we wanted to switch the order of these sentences, we could, someone had forgotten to lock the door.

The thief simply walked in. So the first event is that someone forgot to lock the door. The second event was the thief walked in. So we have to say had forgotten. Someone had forgotten to lock the door. And then the thief. Came in. So that's why we say had again, for forgot is an irregular verb. So we say forgotten.

Had forgotten. Now sometimes we pronounce forgotten in an unusual way. There's two T's there, and you know when you have. The sound. The 't' sound, a vowel, and then an N in English American English. A lot of times we say forgotten. We have the sound in our throat and then we make the n forgotten. If you say forgotten, it's okay.

No problem. People are fine with that. Everyone understands you. But just so you know, you'll hear a lot of, americans saying forgotten. The same with mountain, curtain, kitten, that's how it's going to sound. Sentence number four, "We had hoped to speak to a representative about the warranty before we made any decisions".

So two events in the past that we're talking about, we hoped first then. We made a decision or we wanted to make a decision. Now maybe this happened, maybe it didn't. Maybe we're speaking of something about the past that we wanted to happen and maybe it didn't quite go as we expected. You can do that too in this tense.

So in this sentence, we had hoped first that's what we wanted to do first. We had hoped to speak to a representative about the warranty. Then make a decision, and that's why we say before we made any decisions, so the first event is had hoped to speak to a representative. The second would be make any decisions.

So whether this actually happened or not, maybe we did not get to speak to a representative, but we're speaking of it. That way we're speaking about what we wanted to do, what we wanted to happen in the past, and we're still talking about those two events, one happening before another. So that's one way you can do that.

Number five, "I told Sam that I had seen that movie before", so two events in the past. I saw the movie sometime in the past, and then I told Sam about it. So we have to understand and remember the relationship of events to one another, but because those two events are already in the past, you know me telling Sam and then I saw the movie before, I have to use, had I told Sam that I had seen Irregular Verb, had seen that movie before.

So I saw the movie before I told Sam about it. That's why we use Past Perfect in this sentence. Now a second way that we use Past Perfect is with duration before something in the past. And we use non-progressive verbs for this. So it's still the same idea of two events happening in the past. Two events completed in the past, but one event has happened over a duration of time.

That's the only difference. One event had been ongoing. For a while before the other event. So that's the only difference, and we want to express that. So number six, "Frank had been in London for six years by the time he graduated". So the two events in the past, first, Frank had already been in London for six years.

Okay. He had been living there, this was over time, six years then. The second event he graduated. I cannot say Frank had been being in London, if I wanna say be, I could say Frank had been living in London, but that's a different grammar. That's a different tense.

So that's like past perfect continuous and we haven't gotten to that yet. But this one is just, past perfect. Had plus the past participle, which is been, had been in London six years, and notice that the second event is in the simple past. Number seven. "We felt sad about moving because we had lived there for more than 40 years", so two events in the past.

First, we had lived there for a duration of 40 plus years. And then we felt sad. Sometimes the events and the sentences will be, switched. But the grammar stays the same. We wanna say this, we felt sad and here's the reason. The reason came first obviously. So we have to say, we had lived there.

Those things are already in the past, but I'll probably say, yeah, I felt really sad. I felt sad about moving 'cause we had lived there for so long. Now you've probably noticed that we use before and after in with this tense. So I'm gonna mention something about that if either before or after is used in the sentence and there is some action that is happening, someone or something is doing something, the simple past may be used because the time relationship is already very clear.

Okay, here's an example. Number one. "Sam had finished his assignment before the bell rang". So according to our rules, we look at the two events in the past. Sam finished his assignment first and then the bell rang. So we can say, of course, had finished no problem. But we can also say it this way.

Sam finished -simple past. "Sam finished his assignment before the bell rang", and this way is acceptable too because it's very clear he finished his assignment before the bell rang. No problem. There's no confusion. We understand the relationship of our events very clearly. Both ways are acceptable.

Here's another example. "I had cleaned the house before the guests arrived". Two events, cleaned the house, then the guests arrived. So I can say had cleaned, but I can also say "I cleaned the house before the guests arrived". No "had". That sentence is very clear. It's acceptable to just say, "I cleaned the house before the guests arrived".

I can say had cleaned. So this is okay. This is acceptable. Let's look at the last example. "After the guests had left, I went to bed". So two events, the guests left, then I went to bed. I could also say after the guests left, I went to bed. Because I've used after it's very clear, I can just say, yeah, after the guests left, I went to bed.

It's acceptable. It's okay. So that's one difference. Okay. With before and after. So of course there are always exceptions in English. So the exception to this would be experience. Let's look at this sentence. "She never saw a jellyfish before she went to the beach". We have two events, in this case, negative and never saw a jellyfish before she went to the beach.

Okay, so go/went to the beach. Never saw a jellyfish. This is considered experience, so it's not correct to say "she never saw a jellyfish before she went to the beach" because we're talking about experience. Anything with your senses. Seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, feeling, being, a state of be, all of that is considered experience.

And with experience you still need to use the past perfect form. So the correct form here is "She had never seen a jellyfish before she went to the beach". That is correct. So that's, that's the exception to using before and after in the simple past. We cannot use the simple past here because we're talking about experience.

Look at the next sentence. I was never out of the country before I studied abroad. This is not correct because we have was, we have a state of be. We need to say, we need to use a state of be. What would be the past perfect of be? "Been" So, "I had never been out of the country before I studied abroad". This is the correct way to use that sentence again.

"Be". That's a state of "be" - experience. Okay, let's take a deep breath. It's a little bit to process and when you've learned a second language and it takes time to be proficient, with all the rules, structures. So you're not expected to be an expert right away. Even though we wish this could happen overnight it takes time.

So I just encourage you, to go through these rules again and again, try to apply them in your conversations. There's a link in the description below where you can go and practice. Take a digital quiz and see how much you understand and what you remember. If you found value in this video, please give a like and subscribe and hit that notification bell.

Happy learning everyone.

It's form is had. Plus the past participle. Now just to do a quick review. Remember the past participlele if it's a regular verb, we use ed. If it's an irregular verb, the word changes. Its form completely. Such as, take becomes taken. Write, wrote, written. Okay. Written is the past participle form.

If we have the verb of be it becomes been Okay. So there's just something to remember with irregular verbs and the past participle. We talked about that before and some of our other videos. So let's look at an example. I had already studied chapter one before I began to study chapter two. So two events.

Before the expected time, excuse me. So already means before the expected time. I had already studied. Now, usually in this form we will place these adverbs between had and the past participle. If you forget and you say, I already had studied. Not a big deal. People will still understand you, for the most part we will put these adverbs between had and the past part of simple.

Jill had never heard about the plan. So two events in the past. Y yesterday and not heard about the plan. So we have that adverb of time until okay, so until yesterday. That means all the time in the past and all of Jill's experience in the past. She hadn't heard about the plan and then when yesterday came, that's when she heard about the plan at that point in time.

So we say had never heard. Number three, the thief simply walked in. Someone had forgotten to lock the door. So two events in the past. Someone forgot to lock the door first, then the thief walked in. Now, if we wanted to switch the order of these sentences, we could, someone had forgotten to lock the door.

Had forgotten. Now sometimes we pronounce forgotten in an unusual way. There's two T's there, and you know when you have. The sound. The t sound, a vowel, and then an N in English American English. A lot of times we say forgotten. We have the sound in our throat and then we make the n forgotten. If you say forgotten, it's okay.

No problem. People are fine with that. Everyone understands you. But just so you know, you'll hear a lot of, americans saying forgotten. The same with mountain curtain kitten, that's how it's going to sound. Sentence number four, we had hoped to speak to a representative about the warranty before we made any decisions.

Number five, I told Sam that I had seen that movie before, so two events in the past. I saw the movie sometime in the past, and then I told Sam about it. So we have to understand and remember the relationship of events to one another, but because those two events are already in the past, you know me telling Sam and then I saw the movie before, I have to use, had I told Sam that I had seen Irregular Verb, had seen that movie before.

That's the only difference. One event had been ongoing. For a while before the other event. So that's the only difference, and we want to express that. So number six, Frank had been in London for six years by the time he graduated. So the two events in the past, first, Frank had already been in London for six years.

So that's like past perfect continuous and we haven't gotten to that yet. But this one is just, past. Perfect. Had plus the past participle which is been had been in London six years, and notice that the second event is in the simple past. Number seven. We felt sad about moving because we had lived there for more than 40 years, so two events in the past.

Okay, here's an example. Number one. Sam had finished his assignment before the bell rang. So according to our rules, we look at the two events in the past. Sam finished his assignment first and then the bell rang. So we can say, of course, had finished no problem. But we can also say it this way.

Sam finished simple past. Sam finished his assignment before the bell rang, and this way is acceptable too because it's very clear he finished his assignment before the bell rang. No problem. There's no confusion. We understand the relationship of our events very clearly. Both ways are acceptable.

Here's another example. I had cleaned the house before the guests arrived. Two events, cleaned the house, then the guests arrived. So I can say had to cleaned, but I can also say I cleaned the house before the guests arrived. No. Had, that sentence is very clear. It's acceptable to just say, I cleaned the house before the guests arrived.

I can say had cleaned. So this is okay. This is acceptable. Let's look at the last example. After the guests had left, I went to bed. So two events, the guests left, then I went to bed. I could also say after the guests left, I went to bed. Because I've used after it's very clear, I can just say, yeah, after the guests left, I went to bed.

It's acceptable. It's okay. So that's one difference. Okay. With before and after. So of course there are always exceptions in English. So the exception to this would be experience. Let's look at this sentence. She never saw a jellyfish before she went to the beach. We have two events, in this case, negative and never saw a jellyfish before she went to the beach.

Okay, so go/went to the beach. Never saw a jellyfish. This is considered experience, so it's not correct to say she never saw a jellyfish before she went to the beach because we're talking about experience. Anything with your senses. Seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, feeling, being, a state of be all of that is considered experience.

And with experience you still need to use the past perfect form. So the correct form here is she had never seen a jellyfish before she went to the beach. That is correct. So that's, that's the exception to using before and after in the simple past. We cannot use the simple past here because we're talking about experience.

Look at the next sentence. I was never out of the country before I studied abroad. This is not correct because we have was, we have a state of be we need to say, we need to use a state of be What would be the past perfect of be Been So I had never been out of the country before I studied abroad. This is the correct way to use that sentence again.

Be That's a state of be B experience. Okay, let's take a deep breath. It's a little bit to process and when you've learned a second language and it takes time to be proficient, with all the rules, structures. So you're not expected to be an expert right away. Even though we wish this could happen overnight it takes time.

Happy learning everyone.

Past Perfect

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