Guide to English grammar

've always hated hospitals.

68 Past perfect and past perfect continuous

Miranda lay on her bed and stared at the ceiling. She was depressed. Her boy friend Max had gone on holiday with his brother the day before. He hadn't invited Miranda to go with him. He hadn't even said goodbye properly. And everything had been going so well. What had she done wrong?

A practical guide to English grammar 76

1 Form

Past perfect had + past participle Someone had invited Negative Someone had not invited Questions Had someone invited?

Past perfect continuous had been + active participle Someone had been going Someone had not been going Had someone been going?

2 Use of the past perfect
We use the past perfect for an action before a past time.
She had met Max six months before.
I knew I had forgotten something.
By midnight they had come to an agreement.
We ran onto the platform, but the train had just gone.
The paragraph above begins in the past tense. The situation is that Miranda lay on her bed. The writer looks back from the past situation to a time before.
Compare the present perfect and past perfect.
The floor is clean. I have washed it.
The floor was clean. I had washed it.
We can also use the past perfect for a state.
They had been friends for six months.
Everything had seemed fine up to then.
The gunman had previously been in prison for three years.

For the past perfect in if-clauses, • 257(6).

3 Past simple and past perfect
1 To talk about one action in the past we use the past simple.
This lamp is a new one. I bought it last week. NOT I had bought it last week.
We also use the past simple when one action comes straight after another, when someone reacts quickly.
When the shot rang out, everyone threw themselves to the floor.
To say that someone finished one action and then did something else, we use “either when... had done or after... did/had done”.