Past Perfect: rules, examples

Quite often times in English become a stumbling block for many. But in fact, everything is quite simple: you just have to sit, understand the rules and read more texts.

Past Perfect: what is this time

This is the so-called pre-past time, when everythingthe action takes place in the past, but ends before a certain moment or the beginning of the commission of another action (or event), too, in the past. In other words, this is all that has already happened, before something else happened (which also ended). Everything refers to a certain time or moment, already lived and passed. Usually, in Past Perfect, the rules provide for the use of several adverbs that show the event that happened before: never, ever, yet, already. Example: By the time Julia arrived at the building, Mary had already left. - By the moment Juliya got to the building, Mary had already left.

Past Perfect: rules of education

Here everything is very simple. To use this time, you only need to take the second form of the verb have (already familiar had) and the third form necessary for the meaning of the verb (that is, past participle). In regular verbs, it is formed by simply adding an ending -ed, for wrong ones it is taken in the dictionary and is learned.

1. Affirmative form: I / You / She / They / He had read it.
2. Negative form: I / She / He / You / They had not (had not) read it.
3. Interrogative form: Had I / You / She / He / They read it?

Past Perfect: rules and examples of use

There are two options here, which must always be considered and do not forget about the timing of the times.

1. If the described action took place before any particular mark in the past. Example: By 2000, she became a world-famous singer. - By 2000 she had become a world-famous singer. Thus, a reference point is immediately put and it is indicated that it achieved success precisely by 2000 and not earlier (that is, there is a certain event or time in the past).
2. If the event or action occurred before the startanother action is also in the past. Past perfect (the rules say this) is used to describe the event that happened before. What happened later describes Past Indefinite. Example: She did not want to go to the cinema with us yesterday, because she already watched "The Lord of the Rings". - She did not want to go to the cinema with us yesterday, because she had already seen «The Lord of the Rings». In this case, the used adverb immediately demonstrates which of the described actions and events occurred before the other.

Difference from other past times

Past Perfect (the rules of his education are verysimple and logical) differs from other times such as Past Simple, Present Perfect (the rules for their formation are also quite easy: the first is formed by a simple change of the verb and means a simple action that took place in the past without any pitfalls, the second shows that the event or the action happened in the past, but ended exactly at the specified moment in the present or are completed only now.It is formed by using the verb form have in the present tense and the semantic verb,necessary for the proposal), and to catch this difference is quite easy. For this it is necessary not only to learn the form of education, but also to think about the meaning of the sentence as a whole, in order to catch its logic and meaning, and not translate word for word. In the latter case, the words simply mix, and there will be no understanding of the text. However, with a thoughtful approach to English grammar, there will be no difficulties with understanding both written text and oral speech.