The past perfect tense: how we form it and why we use it - English In A Minute

Hi, everyone!

I'm James and today we're going to talk about

the past perfect tense

– how we form it and why we use it.

By the time I arrived at the airport,

the plane had already left.

In this example, 'had left' is the past perfect tense.

The structure for the past perfect tense is

had + a past participle.

There are two past actions:

arriving at the airport

and the plane leaving.

But which of these happened first?

The clue is the past perfect tense.

The action in the past perfect is the action that

always happens first.

Because the verb 'leave' is in the past perfect

– had left –

we know that this action happened first.

The action that happened second

is often in the past simple tense

– in this example: 'I arrived'.

When you want to talk about two past actions,

one which happened before the other,

remember to use the past perfect for the first action

and the past simple for the second.

Thanks for joining us for this English In A Minute.