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