Try this online test to measure your understanding of the verb tense. It’s composed of three activities: multiple choice, completion, and rewriting types.
What Is the Past Perfect Tense?
It’s a verb tense used to discuss actions completed before a specific event in the past. We form it using the auxiliary verb had and pair it with the past participle form of the verb. For example:
- We were happy that she had graduated with honors.
Use this verb tense when referencing an event that happened earlier. For example:
- I had gone out when Roland arrived in the office.
Anyone can use the past perfect tense in negative form. For example:
- I was exhausted because I had not slept well.
The past perfect tense can also exist in interrogative sentences. For example:
- Had you saved the file before the power went out?