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Questions tagged [past-perfect]

Questions about Past Perfect tense

Questions about Past Perfect tense.

The Past Perfect verb is HAD + Past Participle of the verb (usually ending in -ED).

For example:

I had finished work, so I walked to the beach.

Had finished is in the past perfect, walked is the past simple tense.

380 questions
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“Had not” vs. “have not”?

I'm a native English speaker and for some reason the following dialogue sounds wrong, but I don't know why: A: "I think this is a new episode!" B: "Yeah, I had not seen it before" I think B should have said: "I have not seen it before" but I don't…
Frew Schmidt
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"Would have had to have been" vs "would have had to be" for past event conditions

I instinctively said I would have had to have been over 180 lbs for that to have happened. I thought that seemed overly wordy. Too many "have"s and "had"s. So I tried: I would have had to be over 180 lbs for that to happen. That didn't feel…
MicronXD
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1 answer

Can the Past Perfect be substituted with past simple + time reference only with state verbs?

As an English teacher, I often find students unclear about the use of the past perfect. It seems that this is sometimes optional if there is a time reference. I take both these sentences to be correct and mean the same: Until I went to the Tower of…
Peter
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2
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1 answer

Is it necessary to use the past perfect if a time expression makes the order of events clear?

On the Michael Vince’s book, English Grammar and Vocabulary, there is this sentence: ” Mallory had discovered an ancient map showing the position of the city, although no European had ever been to the area before.” Why can’t it be: “ Mallory…
Bárbara Hungria
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A question about 'Past Perfect'

I'd appreciate if anyone could explain to me the usage of past perfect in the following sentence, since the past perfect, I assume, is unusually referring to 'later past'. "The frustrated interrogator was not going to give up easily. “Are you both…
deepcosmos
  • 31
2
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1 answer

Is "When I lived in Berlin, I had seen the movie three times" grammatical?

Today I read the following description of preterite perfect in The Cambridge Grammar of English Language. The distinction between the present perfect and the simple preterite is neutralized elsewhere in the verbal system, so that when have carries…
Aki
  • 1,165
2
votes
2 answers

Using past perfect with conclusion words

Is the past perfect tense necessary when using conclusion words (so, therefore, thus)? Does the meaning of conclusory words imply that the verb contained in the conclusion occur after the verb in the premise, and thus, the past perfect is not…
CDM
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2
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Use of past perfect tense

We normally use past simple tense to talk about the past and past perfect tense to talk about the past in the past, i.e. to talk about some event that that happened before some other event. I often see that when we use past perfect tense, we use it…
Kaptan Singh
  • 645
1
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1 answer

Can "hence" be used to refer to time forward relative a past event in the context of the past event (moving from past perfect to simple past)?

There is a good discussion here (Referring to past times with "hence") that concludes that hence can't be used like "ago" to refer to a past event, not even to describe how much time has passed "since" that event. However, what if using the past…
GraniteStateColin
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Past Perfect Sentence structure for yes/no questions

Which of these is correct and why? Had not you seen this movie before? Had you not seen this movie before?
A__
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it's high time you {past perfect} something

I know that usually it should be "It's high time someone did something." However, what about "the past perfect"? Is it possible to use? If yes, when should it be done and for what effect? "It's high time someone had done something." Here are…
user1425
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1 answer

Use of past perfect versus simple past

When a subordinate clause establishes time, do you have the option of using or not using the past perfect in the main clause? When he called her, he said nothing about quitting his job. When he called her, he had said nothing about quitting his…
Zan700
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1
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1 answer

Multiple usage of Past Perfect in a one sentence. How to recognize which action took place first?

I know that Past Perfect means "earlier past" and is used to clarify which action took place first in chronological order, but what when there are more actions in the past perfect that need to be specifically placed on the timeline? How do I know…
Batal96
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1
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1 answer

2 words HAD in a row

I don't understand this sentence, what are two words "HAD" mean? "I think they may have thought that reaching out to people who represent what is now the mainstream way of thinking and HAD who HAD more access to the Trump administration than people…
Koss M
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Definition of past perfect

A common definition that I get is: " past perfect refers to a time earlier than before now. It is used to make it clear that one event happened before another in the past." However, wouldn't that imply that this sentence is right? I had gone to the…
Pierre B
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