Understanding past perfect tense

What is past perfect tense?

The past perfect tense, sometimes called “pluperfect tense,” is a verb tense that allows you to express actions or events that occurred before another past action or a specific point in the past. Use past perfect when you want to establish a clear chronological order among past events in your writing to help your readers understand which event happened first.

How to write using past perfect tense

To form past perfect tense, you need two components: the auxiliary verb “had” and the past participle of the main verb. When writing complete sentences using past perfect tense, those two components should follow the subject, like:

• She had eaten breakfast before the meeting.
• They had completed their homework assignments after school.

When you want to negate the past perfect tense, add “not” in the formation. It’ll be the auxiliary verb “had,” then “not,” then the past participle of the main verb. A couple of examples are:

• He had not finished his book by the time the library closed.
• She had not studied for the exam, so her performance wasn’t as good as she had hoped.

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It’s easy to use past perfect tense when asking questions too. Rearrange the formation so the auxiliary verb “had” comes first, then the subject that’s taking the action, and finally, the past participle of the main verb. It’ll look like this:

• Had she met him prior to the conference last month?
• Had he received the package before he left for vacation?

When to use past perfect tense

There are plenty of ways to elevate your writing using past perfect tense. Some of the best times to use this verb tense are:

To express a completed action before another past action

One of the easiest ways to use past perfect tense is when you want to show that one action was completed before another past action happened. For example:

• Before I arrived at the party, they had already eaten the cake.
  In this example, “had already eaten” indicates that the eating of the cake was done before the subject’s arrival at the party.

To narrate events

When you’re writing a narrative essay, story, or poem, past perfect tense is especially helpful in creating a clear sequence of events for your audience to follow. An example of a sentence you might write in a mystery piece is:

• The detective had discovered a crucial clue before the sunset.
  In this sentence, “had discovered” denotes that the detect found the clue prior to sunset.

To describe unfulfilled expectations

Not only can past perfect tense be used to reiterate a sequence of events, but it can also be used to emphasize the difference between what was expected and what actually happened. For example:

• I had hoped to finish the project by Friday, but it took more time.
  In this example, “had hoped” conveys the expectation that wasn’t met.

To discuss cause and effect

Past perfect tense is also a valuable tool when you want to highlight cause-and-effect relationships. For example, you might write:

• He had missed the train, so he arrived late to the meeting.
  In this sentence, “had missed” indicates that missing the train caused his tardiness to the meeting.

Understanding past perfect tense is helpful to learn and apply in your writing so you can establish an easy-to-follow order of actions that take place. It’ll offer your readers the ability to peer into the past and understand delicate relationships between events. Beyond mere syntax and grammar, past perfect tense allows you to capture the essence of moments gone by to make your writing more vivid and precise. Learn about other verb tenses and explore more tips to write effectively.