Lesson Summary
Can you accurately tell stories in English? The Past Perfect Tense will help you do it! In this English Grammar Lesson, I'll go over the correct usage, pronunciation & examples. As usual, there's a QUIZ & CHALLENGE for you at the end!
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Video Transcript
Section 1
Hey there I'm Emma from mmmEnglish! Today we're gonna focus on the language that you need to tell stories in English.
Now we all tell stories right about our day, about our childhood or maybe just to laugh at something that happened earlier. So a really useful tense to help you accurately tell stories in English is the past perfect.
Now I know that grammar isn't usually heaps of fun but we're going to include some pronunciation practice and I will make it as fun as I can. As always I've got a mini quiz at the end to help you practise so make sure you stick around.
So we use the past perfect to talk about the past but not just any situation in the past, we use the past perfect when we're talking about two events that happened in the past and when one event happened before the other event.
So it helps you to order the actions in your story. Think about the past perfect as helping us to create a timeline.
- I had just stepped outside when it started to rain.
So there are two actions here, right? I stepped outside, it started to rain.
Now if I use just the past simple for both of these events well then we don't know which one happened first, right? All we know is that both events happened in the past. So by using the past perfect in one of those actions, I'm letting you know which action happened before the other.
- I had just stepped outside when it started to rain.
So which one came first? I stepped outside and then after it started to rain.
Let's look at a few more examples.
- She had just finished her exam when the timer went off.
So which action happened first? Did the timer go up first? No, she finished her exam first but only by a little, just. And we know this because of the past perfect.
- I couldn't go out for dinner because I had left my wallet at home.
So try and imagine the story here, you know, I was working and one of my colleagues came up to ask me to join them for dinner after work but I realised that I didn't have my wallet that day. I left it at home. So I couldn't go out.
- He had mentioned feeling sick, but then they were surprised when he suddenly fainted.
Now that is a great sentence. It's very dramatic. He did say that he felt sick and he mentioned it before he fainted but clearly, no one was paying attention because it was a shock that he fainted.
So the past perfect helps our story to unfold over time, to create suspense and to create drama.
So let's talk about how we make a past perfect sentence and it's pretty simple actually as far as English verb tenses go especially after all of the conditionals videos that I've been teaching lately.
You've probably already started noticing a pattern. We create the past perfect by using the verb ‘had', the auxiliary verb ‘had', followed by our main verb in past participle form.
So let's go back and look at those same examples again.
- She had just finished her exam when the timer went off.
- I couldn't go out for dinner because I had left my wallet at home.
- He had mentioned feeling sick but then they were surprised when he suddenly fainted.
So I'm going to interrupt our lesson here before we go too much further because I want to talk about pronunciation.
Learning to correctly use contractions is going to help you to sound much more natural and much more relaxed as you speak. ‘had' is our auxiliary verb here right and our main verb comes after in the past participle form.
So auxiliary verbs are grammatical words. They're usually unstressed and this impacts the way that they are spoken. Auxiliary verbs are usually connected to the subject in spoken English so it's really natural to hear:
I'd instead of I had
you'd (you had)
she'd (she had)
he'd (he had)
we'd (we had)
they'd (we had)
and the trickiest one of all, it'd (it had)
- It'd been raining all day.
Now in negative sentences, the auxiliary verb usually contracts with ‘not' so you'll hear I hadn't instead of I had not. Or you hadn't instead of you had not.
Now remember, we don't conjugate the auxiliary verb when were using the past perfect right so we use ‘had' with ‘she'.
She hadn't.
It hadn't.
They hadn't.
But you will occasionally hear the contraction a little differently.
She'd not been there.
You'd not tasted it.
And this is absolutely no problem but it's much less common. It's used less frequently.
My students often feel really frustrated about these contractions because they're exactly the same contractions as we use for ‘I would', I'd. It's annoying I know but the clue is in the main verb that follows because with ‘would', it's always followed by the infinitive verb right? ‘had' is always followed by the past participle.
So if you hear ‘I go to the beach every day after school' we know that that's ‘would' because the verb ‘go' is an infinitive form.
- I'd been at the beach when the storm rolled in.
We know that that's the past perfect because of the verb form that follows.
So as we move through this lesson, tune into the way that I'm saying all the examples and the practice sentences. Try to practise out loud with me and just get comfortable with it.
Alright now let's get back to how the past perfect tense is used because it almost always involves more than one event or action. So we usually need to know what to do with the other event in our sentence, right?
So when we use the past perfect in a sentence to show the order of things that happen in the past, the first event happens in the past perfect tense. The second event happens in the past simple tense.
Now interestingly it doesn't matter which order the events are in the sentence. It's the tenses that tell us what happened first so we could say the past perfect, past simple or the past simple and the past perfect. It's the same. In either of those examples, the past perfect event is the one that happened first in time.
- I had just smelled smoke when the fire alarm went off.
- When the fire alarm went off, I had just smelled smoke.
So in both examples, I smelled the smoke first. It happened just before the alarm went off.
I also want to make a special point about adverbs here because we use adverbs like just and really, already. They're often used in the past perfect tense and they go between ‘had' and our main verb right so we have ‘had', adverb, past participle.
… had just finished.
… had really tried.
… had already eaten.
All of this is exciting huh? It helps us to add more to our story.
So we use ‘just' with the past perfect when one event happens immediately before the other so you really want to emphasise that not much time has passed between the first event and the second event.
- He had just got in the shower when he heard a knock at the door.
So it was only moments before. We use ‘already' with the past perfect when an event happens early or earlier than expected.
- I ran to the supermarket as fast as I could but it had already closed when I got there.
Do you want to know one of the most common mistakes that my students make with this tense? Can you see what's wrong there?
It's the present perfect and you can't use ‘when' with the past simple and the present perfect. We have to use the past perfect ‘had' with the past participle even when the subject is plural, we still use ‘had' okay so don't conjugate the verb. That is a massive mistake when you're talking about the past perfect.
So we've gone through all the details about how to make the past perfect, what you need to remember, what you need to do. Let's practise using it together. I'm really looking forward to hearing some stories from you guys.
Quiz time! To kick off our quiz, I'm gonna give you two events or actions up here.
Both of these events take place in the past. So I'll tell you which event happened first and you'll need to write a sentence correctly using the past perfect. So the first event was we heard a strange noise and the second event was the lights went out immediately after.
Now that part about immediately after is important because you can use an adverb to help explain that. So you might write something like:
- We had just heard a strange noise when the lights went out.
PRACTICE QUIZ
Now it's your turn to try. So I want you to write your answers in the comments down below this video so that I can come down and check them for you, correct them if you need it.
Event 1: I decided to leave.
Event 2: The boss called for a meeting.
Event 2: We bought plane tickets.
Event 1: The prices increased (unexpectedly early)
Event 1: She looked around for help.
Event 2: A salesperson appeared (immediately afterwards)
Awesome work! I have got one extra challenge for you if you really want to test your skills, see how well you can do. I want you to write a short story for me about a misadventure that you've had once in the past.
So I want you to try and use three examples of the past perfect. And just so you know a misadventure is an adventure or a story but something went a little wrong. Something went not quite right.
Perhaps it's quite a funny story where you were running late, you missed your bus and you got rained on. Or maybe it was a frustrating story about losing your keys, getting locked out and then missing an important meeting.
I'm really excited to read these stories guys and I'm gonna do my best to give you feedback, especially if you get your stories written in the next couple of days, as soon as this video is released on my channel.
Thank you for sticking with me through this lesson. I hope that it was useful and a little bit of fun. Make sure you subscribe to my channel and share this lesson with anyone who you know needs to practise their grammar a little.
As always you can join me right here for our next lesson. See you in there!
mmmEnglish Video Lessons are a series of video lessons created to build confidence in English learners and focus on English in daily life. Download them and watch them anywhere! Subscribe to my YouTube Channel to be the first to get my new videos, and come and say hi on my Facebook page!!
Hi Emma, here is my misadventure 🙂
I'm from Spain but currently working in Australia. Taking profit of my stay here, last November I decided to visit Sydney. Several unexpected situations occurred to me during this trip. The most significant was that after my first day of intensive tourism, I had just arrived to my room in an airbnb when I found an spider over my pillow. I hadn't ever seen such a big spider before! Fortunately, I hadn't left from my shocked status when the owner came to rescue me and she sweetly broke free the spider through the window.
Thanks for your super useful and nice lessons Emma!
I had decided to leave when the boss called for a meeting.
We had just bought the tickets when the prices increased.
She had looked around for help when the salesperson appeared.
I had decided to leave when the boss called for a meeting.
We had already bought plane tickets when the prices increased.
She had just looked around for help when the salesperson when a salesperson appeared
She had just looked around for help when a salesperson appeared ✔
We bought plan tickets but the prices had already increased.
You are the best teacher!
Come on
I just had decided to leave when the boss called for a meeting.
I had just decided to leave when the boss called for a meeting. ✔
Always excited to learn through the shared video Emma,will always grateful for provided valuable lesson.Thank you for being part of the English learning.
It is such a pleasure, Rakesh! Thank you for your kind words and support!
I had decided to leave when the boss called for a meeting
The prices had increased when we bought plane ticket
She had looked around for help when a salesperson appeared
The prices had already increased when we bought plane tickets ✔
She had just looked around for help when a salesperson appeared ✔
At 68, it is great fun learning English through your medium.
1. I had decided to leave, wenn the boss called for a meeting.
2. We had just bought plane tickets, wenn the prices increased.
3. She had just looked around for help, wenn a salesperson appeared.
We had bought plane tickets when the prices already increased. ✔
Thank You!
1: I had decided to leave when the boss called for a meeting.
2: We bought plane tickets but the prices had already increased.
3: She looked around for help when a salesperson had just appeared.
1) I had decided to leave then the boss called me for meeting.
2) He had bought the plane tickets, unexpectedly, the prices increased.
3) she had looked around for help, in the next moment Salesman appeared.
Ma'am please check those sentences n lemme know if it wrong.
1) I had decided to leave when the boss called me for a meeting. ✔
2) When he bought the plane tickets, the prices had already increased. ✔
3) She had just looked around for help when a salesman appeared. ✔
I'd decided lo leave when the boss called me for a meeting
We bought plane tickets when the priceshad already increased
She had just looked around for help when a salesperson appeared.
I'd forget my english when the professor came to my house.
She had taken the umbrella when I run to meet her.
I'd gone home when she called me yesterday.
I'd forgotten my English when the professor came to my house. ✔
She had taken the umbrella when I ran to meet her. ✔
quiz 1)I had decided to leave when the Boss called for a meeting.
quiz 2) The prices had already increased when we bought plane tickets.
quiz 3) she had just looked around when a salesperson appeared.
my story:
I had just eaten my sandwich when my sister called me. Suddenly, I dropped my phone from 0.5 meters that bought it last week by my first salary. At first I panicked but the most incredible thing happened. It dropped on my shoes so it had no serious damage except some slight scratches on its screen.
1) I had just decided to leave when the boss called for a meeting
2) The prices increased but we had already bought plane tickets
3) She had just looked around for help when a salesperson appeared.
Hi Emma I'm pretty excited to write to you, this is the first time that I do, so my name is Diego and I form Mexico City and… this is my short story:
Yesterday morning I had a wake up late because the day before I went off late work and I had to arrive earlier to finish my work, so I run to take a shower and dresser and I had already turned on the car to leave my house when the dog poop in the floor and I couldn't go out so I run again to clean the area and then went off. Well I get late at work but could finish on time
Thank you Emma.
I had decided to leave when the boss called for a meeting.
The prices had already increased when we bought the plane tickets.
A salesperson just had appeared when she looked for a help.
A salesperson appeared when she had just looked for help. ✔
Adventure story:
I'd been exploring Bali for 2 weeks when two days before leaving, a volcano erupted.
Our tour guide told us that due to this emergency lots of places including the most popular temple, one nearby the volcano area, will be lockdown. Fortunately we'd just seen it.
My return flight was on time but before I landed in Warsaw, Bali's authorities had already cancelled rest of all flights due to massive, thick fog caused by volcanic ash.
I'd a luck! I could have been stuck there for a long time.
I had just decided to leave when the boss called for a meeting.
We had already bought plane tickets when the prices increased.
When she looked around for help, a salesperson had just appeared.
1.I had already decided to leave when the boss called me for a meeting.
2.The prices had just increased when we bought plane tickets.
1. I had just decided to leave when the boss called me for a meeting. ✔
2. The prices had already increased when we bought plane tickets. ✔
1. I had just decided to leave when the boss called for a meeting.
2. The prices had already increased when we bought our plane tickets.
3.She had really looked around for help when a salesman appeared.
She had just looked around for help when a salesman appeared. ✔
My Story
We were preparing our seniors' farewell party. Almost everything was set n I had decided for anchoring.But I had no time for practice so, I went on the stage off the cuff. As I hadn't prepared well, I handed over the Mick and all list of program to my friend.Then she organized all programs very well while I had lost my confidence.
1 I had just decided to leave when the boss called me for a meeting
2 The prices had already increased when we bought plane tickets
3 A salesman had just appeared when she looked around for help
Thanking you for this English lesson
1-I had just decided to leave when the boss called me for a meeting.
2-The price had already increased when we bought plane tickets.
3-She had looked around when the salesman appeared.
She had just looked around when the salesman appeared ✔
I just decided to leave when the boss called for a meeting.
The prices already had increased when we bought plane tickets.
She just looked around for help when a salesperson arrived.
It was just before I got home when my e-bike's battery was empty.
Yesterday, I hadn’t finished picking cherries when it started to rain.
Today, it was my job to feed cute twin-calves after they were born yesterday.
1)I had just decided to leave when the boss called for a meeting.
2) The prices has already increased when we bought plane tickets.
3) She had just looked around for help when salesperson appeared.
Correct! ✔
1. I had just decided to leave when my boss called me for a meeting.
2. When we bought our plane tickets, the prices had unexpectedly early increased.
3. She had looked around for help and a salesperson appeared immediately after.
You're a wonderful teacher! Thank you for the lessons!
2. When we bought our plane tickets, the prices had already increased. ✔
3. She had just looked around for help when a salesperson appeared immediately ✔
I had already decided to leave when the boss called me for a meeting.
When we bought plane tickets the prices had already increased
She had just looked around for help when a salesperson appeared
Nice work, Klaus!
1. I had just decided to leave when The boss called me a meeting.
2. The price had allready increased when We bought plane tickets.
3. She had just looked around for help when A salesperson appreared.
Nice work! A few corrections:
– No need to capitalise the words: the, we and a
– already, not allready
Thank you for your advice.
Hi Emma!
I. These are my sentences.
1. I had just decided to leave when the boss called for a meeting.
2. The prices had already increased when we bought plane tickets.
3. She had just looked around for help when a salesperson appeared.
II. This is my story.
I had just entered the lift when I smelt the strange odour in the air. I had decided to leave at once when it turned out that I couldn’t open the door. Before a mechanic repaired the lift my training course for the kindergarten teachers had been over.
I had just decided to leave when The boss called for a meeting.
The prices increased after We had bought the plane tickets.
3. She had looked around for help when A salesperson appeared
The prices had already increased after we bought the plane tickets. ✔
She had just looked around for help when a salesperson appeared. ✔
I see this is an opportunity to practice.
When I thought the problem had been overcome a sad news came and spoiled the peaceful evening.
An amazing video about the past perfect tense. Thank you very much for your sharing your time with us.
I had just decided to leave when my boss called me for a meeting.
The prices had already increased when we brought plane tickets.
When a salesperson appeared she had just looked around for help.
Correct! Fabulous work, Elsa!
1.We had already brought plane tickets when the prices increased.
2.She had just looked around for help when a salesperson appeared.
We bought plane tickets when the prices had already increased. ✔
Hi Emma. I want to thank you for your effort.
The answer is:
1. I had decided to leave when the boss called for a meeting.
2. We bought plane tickets when the prices had already increased.
3. She had just looked around for help when a salesperson appeared.
Correct! Brilliant work Allaa!
I had just decided to leave when the boss called for a meeting.
We bought plane tickets but the prices had already increased.
She had really looked around for help when a salesperson appeared
Is there a difference between to go and to get
for example “let's go back to” and “let's get back to” have the same sens
Thank you very much my teacher.
I had planned going out of the office when the boss called for a meeting
I had (just) planned on leaving the office when the boss called for a meeting ✔
I had just planned going out of the office when the boss called for a meeting
Thank you Emma for your great job! Here my story:
Last January I had just decided to return to Italy when, unfortunately, the pandemic broke out.
I'm sorry to hear Gabriella! I hope you can return to Italy soon!
Hi Emma
You are doing great.
Hello Emma
this is my story :
I had already started studying English when I went to another country , so I can not go to work because of English .
Hello Emma, I saw your video on the Past Perfect simple tense and tried to solve a few questions from different websites on Google…. there I stumbled upon a question where I was perplexed a little, the question was:
She ______ the reception and______ about the way. ( call, ask)
use the past perfect simple tense.
I wrote: Had called, asked… but it said it was wrong. It said that the correct answer is Had called, had asked. Could you explain how I was wrong?