Page 82 - English Grammar - 6

Let’s Learn Past Perfect Tense

The past perfect tense describes an action completed before a certain moment in the past.

Uses of Past Perfect Tense

The past perfect tense is used to:

refer to something that occured a long time ago. For example:
I had met Sushant several years ago.
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refer to something that occured before something else in the past. For example:
I had lived there for three years before I moved here.
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Formation of Past Perfect Tense
To form the past perfect tense, we use had + past participle form of the main verb. For
example:

He had left for the day.
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My mother had cooked dinner when my sister reached home.
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Making Negative and Interrogative Sentences in Past Perfect Tense
Perfect Tenses: Present, Past, Future
To form the negative in past perfect tense, we place not between had and the past participle
form of the main verb. For example:
I had not seen him doing the same stunt last year.
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Kriti had not read the book before.
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To form the interrogative in past perfect tense, we interchange the positions of the subjects
and the helping verb had. For example:

Had she expected that he would tell her the truth?
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Had I hoped that I would get the job?
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Practice Time 2

A. Fill in the blanks with the past perfect form of the verbs given in brackets.
1. Last night, my mother ___________ my favourite dish. (prepare)

2. Ustad Bismillah Khan ___________ shehnai recitals in many countries. (perform)
3. By the time we reached the theatre, the film ___________ already ___________. (begin)
4. I ___________ him a month back. (meet)

B. Rewrite the following sentences in their negative and interrogative forms.
1. They had worked there for many years.
a. ___________________________________________________________________________

b. ___________________________________________________________________________
2. Mother had left her purse at home.
a. ___________________________________________________________________________

b. ___________________________________________________________________________
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