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 come into this room before you sat in your chair.

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:

What does it look like? Negative: Y/N: Short answer: Wh-: I had not/hadn’t flown on a plane before I went to Taiwan. Y/N: Had you flown on a plane before you went to Taiwan? Short answer: Yes, I had. No, I hadn’t. Wh-: Why hadn’t you flown on a plane before?

Past Perfect vs. Simple Past First (in time) of two actions. 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.) When combined with past perfect, use simple past for the second action in time. Ex: 1st You came into the room. 2nd You sat in the chair. Combined: You had already come into the room when you sat in the chair.

Examples: You can say the same thing in different ways! Before you had sat down, you came into the room. After you had come into the room, you sat down. By the time you sat down, you had come into the room. When you sat down, you had already come into the room.

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 had been walking around Disneyland since 8:00 am when I broke my shoe. Plus past participle of “be” Plus present participle (V+“-ing”)

What does it look like? Negative: Y/N: Short answer: Wh-: I had not been sitting for two hours. Y/N: Had you been sitting for two hours? Short answer: Yes, I had. No, I hadn’t. Wh-: What had you been doing when you broke your shoe?

Past Perf vs. PastPerf Prog About two events in the past. Give information about which action occurred first and which action occurred second – both happened before now. There’s usually some kind of relationship between the events. 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. Also about two events in the past. The emphasis is on the fact that the first event was still happening when the second happened. Often used with for/since + time to emphasize the duration of time. Ex: The teacher had been talking for two hours when class finally finished.

Recap: Past Perfect: Past Perfect Progressive: Had + past participle 2 actions happened sometime before now 1st action: past perfect 2nd action: simple past Past Perfect Progressive: Had + been + present participle 1st action: past perf prog – focus is on length of time this action took