The Past Perfect Tense: Part Two


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In today's lesson we continue our unit on verbs and we begin our discussion of the verb tense, the Past Perfect.

Before we begin, you might want to reference our prior lesson, "The Past Perfect Tense, Part One."

When Do We Use the Past Perfect Tense?

 

          Past                     Past                     Present (now)           Future
        1                          2                              3                              x

When two or more actions both or all took place in the past, and the action that is mentioned first (Past 2) took place after the action that is mentioned second (Past 1), we use the past perfect tense for the action that took place earlier (Past 1).


  1. Use the past perfect tense for the action that occurred earlier.

  2. Use the simple past tense for the action that occurred later.

Problem: Aram was punished for something he hasn't done.
Solution: Aram was punished for something he hadn't done.

Which Is Which?

 


Both the earlier and the later actions may be mentioned within the same sentence (as in examples #1 and #3 below) or may span different sentences (as in example #2 below). You can see how important this verb tense is for narrative writing.

   For each sentence below, identify the earlier action and the later action.

1.  We left more quickly than we had arrived.

2.  My grandfather really loved life too and he died with a smile on his face.  He had been  a very strong man who had been a soldier in the Russian Army during World War II.

 3.  My husband told me that during the ceremony, my whole body had been shaking.

Next Lesson...

In our next lesson, test your skills with a POWER EDIT exercise.

So from the ESL Help Desk, thanks for dropping by for this lesson and remember to email us your questions about English grammar by way of our blog. 

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