The Perfect Tenses, Part 2
Past Perfect and Past Perfect Progressive
The Past Perfect
 When do we use it?
 When we are talking or writing about two actions in
the past – we use past perfect about the action that
finished first (before the second action).
 Example:
 You had studied some English by
the time you came to Seattle.
What does it look like?
 Two parts
 Past tense “had” is the helper:
 I had never flown on a plane before I went to Taiwan.
 I felt great after I passed the test because I had studied
for two weeks.
 Plus past participle of the main verb:
 I had never flown on a plane before I went to Taiwan.
 I felt great after I passed the test because I had studied
for two weeks.
What does it look like?
 Negative:
 I
on a plane before I went to Taiwan.
 Y/N:
you
on a plane before you went to Taiwan?
 Short answer:
 Yes, I
. No, I
.
 Wh-:
 Why
you
on a plane before?
Past Perfect vs. Simple Past
Past Perf
Past
 First (in time) of two actions.
 When combined with past perfect,
use simple past for the second
action in time.
 Helps make clear the time
relationship of the verbs.
 Some signals are by the time,
before, after, already, never.
 Often used in reported
speech, which we will cover
this quarter ( Ex: He said that
he had never flown before.)
Ex:
1st You studied English.
2nd You came to Seattle.
Combined:
 You had studied some
English by the time you
came to Seattle.
The Past Perfect
Progressive
 When do we use it?
 Like past perfect, we use past perfect progressive when we’re
talking about two actions in the past and one of them
happened first.
 What’s different is that we want to emphasize the amount of
time, or duration, of the first action and that it was still
happening at the time of the second action.
 Example:
 I had been talking on the phone for an hour when my
battery died.
What does it look like?
 Three parts!
 Past tense “had”:
 I
been walking around Disneyland since 8:00 am
when I broke my shoe.
 Plus past participle of “be”
 I
walking around Disneyland since 8:00 am
when I broke my shoe.
 Plus present participle (V+“-ing”)
 I
around Disneyland since 8:00 am
when I broke my shoe.
What does it look like?
 Negative:
 I
for two hours when the alarm rang.
 Y/N:
you
for two hours when the alarm rang?
 Short answer:
 Yes, I
. No, I
.
 Wh-:
 What
you
in class when the alarm rang?
Past Perf vs. PastPerf Prog
Past Perf
Past Perf Prog
 About two events in the past.
 Also about two events in the past.
 Give information about which
action occurred first and which
action occurred second – both
happened before now.
 The emphasis is on the fact that
the first event was still
happening when the second
happened.
 There’s usually some kind of
relationship between the events.
 Often used with for/since + time
to emphasize the duration of time.
 Most often in this class, past
perfect will come in a complex
sentence with simple past.
 Ex: The teacher had finished
talking before class ended.
 Ex: The teacher had been talking
for two hours when class finally
finished.
Recap:
 Past Perfect:




Had + past participle
2 actions happened sometime before now
1st action: past perfect
2nd action: simple past
 Past Perfect Progressive:
 Had + been + present participle
 2 actions happened sometime before now
 1st action: past perf prog – focus is on length of time this
action took
 2nd action: simple past