Using the Past Perfect Tense Perfect English Grammar

strolling hi everybody and welcome back

to our weekly live stream my name is

Alisha and today we’re going to talk

about how to use past perfect past

perfect tense is a tense that lots of

people ask me about when to use so today

we’re going to focus on a few different

uses of this grammar and of course how

to make statements and questions I’m

going to use a lot of examples in

today’s lesson so I hope all the time

find a lot of new things in the ways of

using this grammar point

so as you join please make sure to send

a message in the chat and also please

like and share this video so that other

learners can find today’s lesson that

would be super cool while we wait for

some people from for lots of people to

join us live as always a couple of quick

announcements first thing first is this

banner at this screen

our team breeze so you can check all the

details from the link below the video if

you are watching this on youtube or

above the video if you are watching this

on Facebook you need an account at

English class 101.com but it is free you

just need your name and an email address

so check that out if you want to get the

beginner level course that is

announcement number one as always

announcement number two is about the Q&A

series but um this one I showed you two

screenshot but anyway this is a

screenshot from the ask

Alisha Q&A series question and answer

series where if you have questions about

English vocabulary English grammar

culture related questions life everyday

life questions maybe whatever you might

have you can send them to this series I

will read your question and maybe answer

it you can find the link to send me your

questions so don’t send me your

questions and comments or in Instagram

or Twitter or something like that it’s

too much so please send it to the

official question submission page at

English class 101.com

slash ask - Alicia you can find this on

the English class 101 youtube channel

check out the episodes there to see what

other questions people have asked ok

that is all for announcements lots of

people are joining so I will come to say

hello to you all

I see many of you are on YouTube hello

YouTube chat I will come to you first

welcome YouTube Osman hello Jermaine

hello Charlie

rocky hi Joey MTA hello Mohammed Khan

Maajid again hello very nice to see

everybody fantastic I am broadcasting

from my house this week so if this is

your first time joining our remote

broadcasts and welcome I’m looking over

here to see our Facebook friends

Facebook where are you hello Facebook

okay fantastic I see people on Facebook

juice I will say hello to you Noah and

Paul I farn hello Mohammed hello

everybody welcome welcome okay I’m going

to show our lesson boards for today now

this is our lesson flow so please take a

look you can take a screenshot of this

to your lots of people I made this so

people can take screenshots easily so

for this I’m going to focus first on

when to use past perfect then I’m going

to talk about how to make past perfect

and at the end of this we’re going to

talk about some common patterns finally

we’re going to talk about how to make

questions with past perfect so we will

cover these points in today’s lesson Oh

ki dokie let’s get started so let’s

begin then with past perfect when to use

past perfect when to use past perfect so

this is the first part this I’m going to

cover two points two uses of past

perfect depending on the study resource

you use you might see kind of different

explanations for this grammar so I hope

that this discovers kind of broadly the

main uses of it so as you’ll see the

primary use of past perfect is for

showing a sequence of something so

sequence means one action after another

so let’s take a look when do we use past

perfect first let’s look at number one

we use past perfect for actions that

finished before another past action

actions that finished before another

past action for example I was really

excited to see the movie because I had

read great reviews so this sentence has

to past actions or to like past in this

case a past condition I was really

excited and then here I had read great

reviews so we’re seeing two actions at

the same time so this is the primary use

I want to focus on her past perfect this

week so to visualize this on a timeline

we can imagine that our past perfect

action happens before the simple past

action so in this example sentence I was

really excited is my simple past action

and then I had read great reviews this

is my past perfect point this part I

read great reviews this happened before

I saw the movie so we use past perfect

to show that two things like two past

actions happened and we want to show the

earlier action we use past perfect to do

this ok so let’s look at one more

example now that we know this one more

example when we arrived the meeting had

already started when we arrived the

meeting had already started so in this

case again we have two actions arrived

that’s my simple past action and the

meeting had already started so I’m going

to talk about already in part two of

today’s lesson this is a very common

word we see with this grammar point so

when we arrived simple past the meeting

had already started mean

the meeting started before this other

simple past action so we’re showing

sequence that’s the primary use like

that’s kind of the theme we will see

with all the uses of past perfect okay

I’m checking the livestream for all your

questions if you have a question please

send it in the chat I will try to check

them live I’m checking both Facebook and

YouTube at the same time there are many

people sending comes inside ok let’s go

to the second point I want to cover for

today if you watched the would have

wouldn’t have lesson that I did last

week you may be familiar with this

example sentence huh

so we use the second use I want to cover

for today is we use past perfect to

express a past unreal condition and

result so a past unreal condition that

means in if situation that is not true

we just want to imagine it and we want

to talk about the imagined result so

again we’re showing a sequence so

there’s a first action and a second

action in this case both are unreal so

it’s an action or a condition but

they’re both not real we’re just

imagining them we use past perfect to do

this so what does this mean

let’s look at an example sentence this

is one I used in last week’s lesson if I

had studied I would have passed the test

if I had studied I would have passed the

test so what’s happening in this

sentence here is my past perfect

expression if I had studied so we

learned in last week’s lesson actually

this means I did not study this means I

did not study in the past but I want to

imagine if I had studied I would have

passed the test

so today I’m not going to talk about

this would have grammar this expresses

this unreal condition in the past but

again the relationship between the two

actions is important with this grammar

past perfect simple past or in this case

a would have expression okay one more

example then we’ll get to the last point

here this one if he hadn’t called me I

wouldn’t have known about the party if

he hadn’t called me I wouldn’t have

known about the party hmm so here we

have a negative a negative so this is an

example of negative use of past perfect

if he had not so this hadn’t means had

not this means he did call me he did

call me but I want to imagine if that

person had not called me this condition

would not have been true I wouldn’t I

would not have known about the party so

that means he did call me so I knew

about the party

I just want to imagine a different

situation okay so these are the kind of

broad uses the general uses of this

grammar point that we’re going to talk

about today so I want to address a very

common question a very common question

like lots of people ask so what’s the

difference between like a simple past

and past perfect like why should I use

that Y as this grammar important to do

that to talk about that I want to I want

to compare let’s compare these two

sentences first one when we arrived the

meeting started second when we arrived

the meeting had started so what’s the

difference between these two sentences

why should we care the first sentence

when we arrived the meeting started it

sounds like at the moment we arrived the

meeting started like the other people

were waiting for us so when we arrived

okay we started the meeting

but with this sentence when we arrived

the meeting had started means before we

arrived

so before we arrived the meeting started

we joined after the meeting started so

this it seems like a small point I know

but it’s not like you can communicate a

lot with these with with this kind of

decision so past perfect a key point to

us a yorkie point for today to remember

past perfect communicates a sequence

there’s a sequence of activities

whatever your past past past activity is

the furthest in the past activity should

be in past perfect tense use simple past

tense to express the activity that’s

closest to the present okay that is part

one for today so this is how we use past

perfect tense I’m looking for your

examples if if I had reviewed my

internet connection I would have seen

your streaming clearly okay good nice

when we go reviewed maybe checked

checked' is a good word check your

internet connection we usually use the

verb check there okay hi Lisa how are

you I am great how are you okay I don’t

see any other questions so I’m going to

continue to part two after a very very

tiny Chiney made me Rick if you missed

it earlier our team has put together

this free beginner level course and a 52

page workbook that you can use you can

download it is a PDF you can download it

to use together with the free beginner

level course I’m pointing at this banner

on the screen on our website so to get

this you need your name and an email

address to make a free account in

English class 101.com

the link is below the video if you are

watching on youtube or above the video

if you are watching on facebook great

okay good some examples are coming in

now with today’s grammar on YouTube

Annie says if the weather had been

better I could have gone out

maybe if the weather was better I could

have gone out I would reverse those if

the if the weather had been better I

could have gone out because like the

weather kind of happened first the

weather condition is first so good I

would just reverse those to make it

natural okay great

I don’t see other examples so I will

show you today’s lesson boards again so

you can see where we are if you’re just

joining so today we’re talking about

past perfect I’ve just talked about when

to you is past perfect now we’re going

to talk about how to make past perfect

I’m also going to cover some common

patterns that we use with past perfect

finally we’ll talk about how to make

questions so now we’re going to talk

about statements statements Oh

yoky so continuing on to parts two then

uh alright so part two and if you’re

just joining please don’t forget please

do like and share the video so that

other people can find today’s lesson

awesome

alright let’s go to part good part do it

past perfect how to make it so a very

nice point about this grammar is it’s

pretty easy to make the basic this basic

form we need three things just three

things we need our subject and we need

had and we need the past participle form

of our bird that’s it I think that makes

but the difference here like they’re

challenging point here is this mix part

of the sentence we need to use past

perfect together with something else so

subject had past participle verb if

you’re not sure what the past participle

verb form is this is a verb form we need

to study for each verb so we’ll cover

some common ones in the examples today

to make this negative just put not right

here just put your nut before the verb

had not verb to make it natural reduce

it hadn’t hadn’t had into verb so we’re

going to look at three examples now

we’re going to look at some posit

examples and some negative examples and

then we’re going to look at some common

patterns you see with past perfect sue

carrying on first one he offered us free

tickets but we had seen the movie he

offered us free tickets but we had seen

the movie so offered is my past tense

action my simple past tense action but

we had seen the movie so in this

situation someone says I have free

tickets would you like to see this movie

you can have these but we had seen the

movie so that means before that

situation before this person offered us

the tickets we had seen the movie so we

use past perfect to express that this

action happened before this action okay

hmm

all right let’s go on to part two or

example number two if you have questions

please send them in the chat mmm

onward uh this one we had finished our

homework by the time dinner was ready we

had finished our homework by the time

dinner was ready so in this case my past

perfect part of the sentence comes first

it comes at the beginning we had

finished our homework so that’s the

early the earlier of the two activities

by the time dinner was ready so that

means dinner became ready after we

finished our homework I’m going to talk

about this by the time part a little bit

later mmm

this is a common expression we see okay

a final example sentence and then we’ll

cover these patterns is a negative a

negative so I hadn’t finished my work

for the day but my boss said it was time

to go home and rest so again I hadn’t

had not I hadn’t finished my work for

the day but my boss said it was time to

go home

and rest so again this action or this

condition was first in this case it’s a

negative so that means I had I wasn’t

finished with my work that was my

condition that was my situation but my

boss said it was time to go home and

rest so this was first this was the

first condition earliest condition

rather this was the earliest condition

and this one was more recent my boss

said it was time to go home and rest so

again we’re using past perfect to show

this sequence of activities okay so now

we have these three example sentences

let’s cover some key patterns that we

see with past perfect some of these were

also they were in part one maybe I’ll

show you these if it’s conveniently okay

so let’s cover I’ve chosen three common

patterns that we see with this grammar

so let’s take a look the first one is

this had already pattern subject had

already past participle verb

I used this pattern in the first the

first part of today’s lesson in this

example this one right here

oops sorry yeah this one when we arrived

the meeting had already started when we

arrived the meeting had already started

so this had already pattern is very

common with this grammar this pattern

emphasizes the action was completed so

that means that this verb we want to

emphasize that this verb was like done

or completed so in the example I’ll show

you this example again in this sentence

when we arrived the meeting had already

started this sentence is correct we use

obviously the sentence is correct so is

this sentence when we arrived the

meeting had started so what’s the

difference between already and not

already it’s an emphasis thing we want

to emphasize that this action began so

it feel

a little bit like oh maybe I was late

like I want to emphasize for some reason

that this thing was completed or this

thing had been done so this already is a

very common word you’ll see in past

perfect pattern so again it emphasizes

this action this verb the verb after

already was completed on YouTube Chung

Cohen says when I came into the

classroom the lesson had already started

perfect very nice ok let’s go to common

pattern number 2 subject had never past

participle verb so I think maybe lots of

you are familiar lots of you know about

this pattern when we see this never

before the past participle verb you can

imagine this like the not but it’s

expressing no life experience of

something this means but also in the

past so maybe you know have never I have

never done something but had never done

something means before the past point in

time subject so this person had no

experience with something no experience

with something so I think I’m going to

show you maybe I’m not going to show you

so for example I might say I might talk

about a vacation I took with my friend

we go to France together and my friend

tries French food for the first time

ever I’m like wow this is your first

time eating french fries so when we come

back from vacation and I tell other

people about the vacation I might say oh

I couldn’t believe my friend had never

tried French food so that means before

the past point in time my friend had no

experience trying French food that’s a

situation where you might hear this

grammar used

okey-dokey all right let’s go to the

last one then this one I’ve used this in

this example sentence oh sorry this

example sentence last common pattern I

want to talk about is subject had past

participle verb same thing

past participle verb by the time blah

blah blah by the time this is a really

really common pattern with past perfect

grammar so what does it mean at some

point before the past tense action the

past perfect action was completed so

this is key so I’ll read it one more

time at some point before the past tense

so this means the simple past tense

action the past perfect action was

completed so let’s look at this example

we had finished our homework by the time

dinner was ready that means at some

point before dinner was ready

we finished our homework so that doesn’t

mean like exactly when dinner finished

we completed our homework it doesn’t

mean that it just means at some point in

time before dinner was ready

we finished our homework so that’s what

by the time by the time this thing

happened this condition happened means

before that point in time but we don’t

we can’t substitute before here we don’t

say we had finished our homework before

dinner was ready I guess mm-hmm I guess

you could if you wanted to but it sounds

a bit more natural to say by the time

diet all right

whew that was a lot but I think these

three these are really really good to

take away from today’s lesson because we

use these to make to create more subtle

nuances to create like deeper meanings

all right I’m looking for your questions

I don’t see your questions some examples

are coming in on YouTube though

Gertrudis says I had taken a shower by

the time he got home next one on YouTube

Conwell Jeet says I had never been to

hill station so I was so excited very

nice Alys asks a question when we use

past perfect

it means we compare two clauses about

something as something happened in time

so yes I think I think that’s the same

thing I covered this in part one of

today’s lesson we’re covering two

actions to past tense actions and we’re

showing the sequence past perfect is the

first action simple past tense is the

more recent action okay let’s see

see hum says I want to know if this rule

is correct before plus simple pass after

plus past perfect can you send me an

example sentence because it’s not true

like if I’m not it’s helpful for an

example sentence there I’m not quite

sure okay uh let’s see mmm some examples

on Facebook now I had finished my

homework by the time you arrived perfect

Bernice very nice very nice okay I don’t

see any other questions so I need to

move along oh my gosh to the final part

for today the final part for today I

will take a quick break to remind you

about our free beginner level course you

can get this from the link below the

video if you are watching on youtube

above the video if you are watching on

Facebook there is a 52 page PDF to

download to use together to use along

with this course I’m pointing at this

banner here so check it out also please

like and share this video so that other

people can find today’s lesson okay I’ll

show you today’s lesson boards again so

you can take a picture if you want hey

there

alright so first I talked about when we

use past perfect then I talked about how

to make statements we just practice this

last we’re going to practice making

questions with this grammar we’re going

to practice information questions and

one yes-or-no question

okay I will take these away and we’ll go

to the last part of today’s lesson

how to make questions isn’t that

exciting okay onward how to make

questions with this grammar again

thankfully this is not super difficult

we can make it but again it’s

challenging to know when to use it so

how do we make a pass perfect question

first in parentheses I have wh cube this

means oh who what where when why how

question one of those information

getting questions yeah

so when we want to make an information

question we put this at the beginning of

the sentence so WH question had subject

past participle form so this is the same

as statements yeah so that’s pretty easy

right we just put our question word at

the front to make a negative we put not

the same parts we have the same parts of

the sentence as with our statement

patterns all right so to make a

yes-or-no question

we can just remove the wh question had

subject verb so it’s very short very

very quick so let’s look at some

examples to understand what’s happening

in these questions so first one I’ve

underlined the past perfect question

here what had he eaten the day before he

started feeling sick what had he eaten

the day before he started feeling sick

so as with our statements in part two we

have our path past action and our simple

past action he started so we still are

showing a sequence this is even though

it’s a question we’re still asking about

something that happened before another

past tense action so this one we want to

ask a question about something before

another past action so he started

feeling sick I want to know what had he

eaten before that so I’m trying to find

the cause of that what

Eitan the day before he started feeling

sick also a pronunciation point about

these questions these I just I just said

it when I read the question this what

had he eaten we tend to reduce these had

sounds after our question words so what

hat sounds like what did what did what

did he eaten what did he eat in the day

before he started feeling sick so we

tend to reduce those let’s try it with

another example question where had they

been before they arrived at the party

where had they been before they arrived

at the party so again this where had

they been is the past past action this

action so they arrived at the party but

we want to ask where were they before

that so we want to ask about those two

things at the same time we use past

perfect to do that where had they been

before they arrived at the party so

again I have a simple past tense action

my question is in past perfect because I

want to know about the earlier action

Maxo on youtube says can I use had had

in a in a past perfect phrase sure so

had let’s see in like a past perfect

statement so if your verb is have then

yes had had can absolutely be used um

okay let’s continue on to this one then

why hadn’t he confirmed the reservation

before you got to the hotel so again why

hadn’t negative yeah why hadn’t he

confirmed the reservation before you got

to the hotel so again this is asking

about an earlier action before you got

my verb here my past tense verb here is

got so the past tense of get this is a

casual way to say arrived somewhere so

this action we want to ask about this

one the

is the earlier of the two actions why

was this thing not done so we want to

ask the reason something did not happen

why hadn’t he confirmed so it confirmed

it’s like a way of saying checked why

hadn’t he confirmed the reservation

before you got to the hotel so we want

we this might be like a clarifying kind

of question hmm okay uh all right I

don’t see ah let’s see questions yet on

YouTube

Ali says can we use past perfect which

should have I would say it’s probably I

can’t think of an example off the top of

my head we tend to use this grammar with

would have patterns mm-hm

perhaps there’s perhaps we can I can’t

think of an example like right right now

okay so let’s take a look at one yes or

no pattern then so this is how’d you

slept before you went to the airport had

you slept before you went to the airport

so this is different from these three

questions because these three these all

start with this WH question yeah this

one is a simple yes-or-no question

had you slept before you went to the

airport so again the the earlier action

is sleeping we want to ask did the other

person sleep before they went to the

airport so again we’re asking about past

past situations here okay so these are a

few examples of ways to make questions

but again even when you make questions

you need to refer to a sequence with

this grammar so we’re talking about a

past action with simple past tense and

an earlier action with past perfect even

when you’re making questions so that is

the key point from today’s lesson

okey-dokey all right I’m coming to take

a look at your questions now I have oh

my gosh only a few minutes so I’ll try

to take a look

let’s see had you a sarah on facebook

says had you eaten well before you went

to work okay that sounds right mmm nice

had you Barney says had you cooked

before you went to the party okay maybe

you can use that okay nice other ones

Annie just like present us are you the

chat is going very quickly I’m trying to

catch all of your questions it let’s

just like in present perfect in past

perfect is the time duration or the

point in time not important a good

question

I wish let’s refer back to part one a

little bit the the time duration is not

so important for simple past perfect if

you’re talking about past perfect

continuous that means I had been verb in

that form then time time duration length

of time is important

I made a live lesson about past perfect

continuous a few weeks ago so please

take a look at that I’ll put a link in

the YouTube description so past perfect

continuous duration is important with

this simple past perfect the key is

showing the relationship between two

past actions okay ah let’s see our

piecing says can I use oh sorry I just

lost your question the chat goes so

quickly it was where had they been and

where where missed your question sorry

sorry sorry sorry sorry it was a really

good one the difference basically I

think it was the question maybe you can

send it again the difference was about

why what’s the difference between where

had they been and where have they been I

think I lost it in the chat the

difference is you’re asking about a

action that happened before another

action in the past so did I yeah I used

this example sentence where had they

been before they arrived at the party is

asking about an action that happened

before a

another past tense action like where

where have they been means up until the

present mmm so that’s the difference

between the two up until the present

where have they been means up until now

and where had they been means up until a

past point in time okay I hope that

answers your question that’s a good one

yeah where had they been or where have

they been thank you for sending that

again yeah I think that I hope that that

answers your question where have they

been again refers to up until now where

had they been refers to a past point in

time up until the past point oh my gosh

what’s an example for had had an example

for had had let’s see um let’s see she

had had a good day when she received

some terrible news that’s a very very

kind of vague example sentence so she

had had a good day when she received

terrible news so that means up until

that point in time so her day was good

at first and then something bad happened

so we use had had when the verb is had

plus the verb have so again to review

that part had plus past participle verb

is used to make past perfect statements

when your verb is have you will get had

had here and that’s totally correct okay

I have to finish comes a lot so thank

you for your awesome questions I really

appreciate your thoughtful questions

that is super super cool but I have to

finish for today so I will share with

you I’ll show you the lesson boards one

more time in case you want to take a

screenshot alright there there so grab

your screenshot there I’m going to take

them away now and cover next week’s

lesson next week’s lesson will be about

how to make guesses about the future

making guesses so making predictions

about the future I want to give you some

more patterns than just I think I think

and maybe so I want to cover things that

are gonna be a little bit more maybe

that will help you express your guesses

a little bit more precisely in a little

bit more detail so please join me next

week July 15th

10:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time that is

New York City time if you don’t know

your local time please use your Google

skills I do for those of you who are

asking lots of you have asked recently

thank you for your interest live lessons

are every week depending on your time

zone Wednesday night or Thursday morning

if you want to make sure to always make

like make time for the lesson you can

set a notification on youtube or on

Facebook to make sure you can join it so

I will end there today of course if you

missed a lesson it is recorded you can

watch this back on Facebook or on

YouTube at any time so I will say

goodbye thank you so much for liking and

sharing this video we really really

appreciate it make sure if you are

interested to check out the free

beginner level course on our website -

from the link below the video on youtube

or above the video on Facebook I will

say goodbye there so thank you for your

time this week enjoy the rest of your

week and I will see you again at next

time bye