PAST PERFECT TENSE

We use past perfect to report

• events that happened before some point in the past

had + 3^rd form of the main verb

Past perfect sentences

• Last visit (in May), you said that you had started on a new drug. Are you still taking it?
• Since May, Ms. Brown has been on donepezil for her Alzheimer’s. Before May, she had done only memory exercises.

Past perfect questions

• We only use the helping verb ‘had’
• The word order changes

‘had’ + (person/place/thing) + 3^rd form of the main verb

EXAMPLES

• Before the new drug, had you tried relaxation techniques?
• Before donepezil, had Ms. Brown taken any other drugs?

In past perfect w-questions (who, what, when, where, why, which, how), the w-word goes before ‘had’:

EXAMPLES

• What techniques had you tried before you started the drugs?
• What had happened before they started the donepezil?

SPEAKING EXERCISE D 

Practice repeating aloud each example sentence in this tutorial. Focus on the common collocations, running them together until they flow as one expression.  The collocations are underlined.

GRAMMAR EXERCISE D

Past perfect or present perfect?

Instructions: Choose the correct option. 

Review MODULE 2 Lesson D for present perfect tense.