Past Perfect Simple

 Read this situation:                                                                     អានជាភាសាខ្មែរ

            Yesterday Miss. Sophea​​ went to join a friend’s birthday. Her friend, Mr. Chandara , wanted to meet her at the birthday party in that they had not met each other for a few months. Unfortunately, when Mr. Chandara got there, Miss. Sophea had left for home already.  So they both didn’t meet.

@ The underlined phrase is called the past perfect simple.

This is the way the past perfect simple is formed:

(Positive)      S+ HAD+ V₃ (past participle) +...

Note: The auxiliary verb “had” is used with all persons.

    

Example:

Subject	aux	past participle
I,You, We, They	had	seen	her before.
		learned	a lot before the exam
He, She, It, Dave	had	gone	home
		stayed	here

            (Negative)   S + had +NOT + V3 (past participle) + ...

           

            Example:

           

           

Subject	aux	past participle
I,You, We, They	hadn’t (had not)	seen	her before.
		learned	a lot before the exam
He, She, It, Dave	hadn’t (had not)	gone	home
		stayed	here

           

          (Question)     (wh-word) +had + S+ V3 (past participle) +...?

            Example:

           

(Wh-word)	aux	S	V3
Where	had	you	met	her?
	Had	she	learned	before the exam?
Why	had	they	stayed	here?

            (Short answer)

           

Yes/No question	short answer(+)	short answer(-)
Had you met them?	Yes, I had	No, I hadn’t
Had she stayed here?	Yes, she had	No, she hadn’t

            Note:

You need to be aware of the past participle of certain verbs and the formation of Ed-spelling of the regular verbs in order to use this tense correctly because this tense is formed with a past participle.

Clickhere to see the table of the verb list of the past participle

Click here to see the Ed-spelling​ rule and pronunciation

            How to use the past perfect simple

1.      To express an action which finished before another action in the past

Note:

Usually, when the past perfect simple is used, two actions are mentioned. The past perfect simple marks the action which happens before the action used in the past simple.

·         Unfortunately, when Mr. Chandara got there, Miss. Sophea had left for home already= Sophea left for home before Chandara got there.

·         He passed the exam because he had prepared well.

=He prepared before the exam took plae.

2.      To explain why something happened in the past

·      I had seen it ,so I did not want to see it anymore

·         Mr.Sithol had had good sale tactics, so he could earn a lot.

3.      To talk about our past wish which wasn’t achieved

·      Mr. Bora had wanted to marry before he was 29, but he couldn’t afford to.

·      He had hoped to get an oversea scholarship, but his mother didn’t want him​ to go away.

4.      The past perfect simple is used as a part of third conditional.

·         I would have told you about the answer if I had known it.

Test your understanding  of this lesson: The Past Perfect Simple and Past Simple Exercise 

      Thanks for reading!