Verbal Ability - Past Perfect Tense

Past Perfect Tense

Past Perfect tense is generally used to denote one action that happened before another action in the past. In other words ‘past of the past’.

Usage

•    Used to denote one action before another in the past or something happened before a specific time in the past.

Example: Preity had never been to a disco before last night.
I had never seen such greenery before I visited Kerala.
When I work up in the morning, my brother had already left.

•    Used to talk about something that’s started in the past and continued until another action in the past.

Example: The family felt bad about leaving the bungalow because they had lived in there for the last fifty years.
We had had that aquarium for five years before it cracked and broke on its own.

NOTE: If the Past Perfect is not referring to an action at a specific time, Past Perfect is compulsory to use. Compare the examples below. Here Past Perfect is referring to a lack of experience rather than an action at a specific time. For this reason, Simple Past cannot be used.

Examples:

•    She never saw a tiger before she moved to India. Not Correct
•    She had never seen a tiger before she moved to India. Correct

Past Perfect in Reported Speech

The official told us the flight had left.
I wondered what if I had been there before.
The teacher asked the students why they had thrown paper on the floor?

Tip: Past Perfect tense is used with words like asked, told, thought, wondered.