DO YOU WANT TO IMPROVE YOUR ENGLISH? (5) Use of Past Perfect

[liangfuji]

Use of past perfect tense

Chinese students always use past perfect tense in a wrong way. When they want to tell people that an action was completed a long time ago, they wrongly use past perfect. The correct way is to use past tense and add some words to tell people how long ago that action was completed.
Example: I bought this dress a long time ago/last year/10 years ago. (Correct)
I had bought this dress 10 years ago. (Wrong)

Past perfect tense is used in the following situations:

1. You want to tell people clearly that an action in the past was completed before another action which was also completed in the past.
Example: You finished your homework at 5 p.m. today. Joe arrived at 6 p.m. today. You two are having super now at 7 p.m.
You say: I had finished my homework when Joe arrived. (Correct)

We can also use past tense with ‘before’ or ‘after’ to show the difference in time of completion, instead of using past perfect.
Example: I finished my homework before you arrived. (Correct)
Or: You arrived after I finished my homework. (Correct)

2. You want to repeat a speech which is in past tense.
Example: ‘I finished my homework yesterday’, said Mary.
Mary said that she had finished her homework the day before. (Correct indirect speech)

3. An action did not take place in the past. But you want to tell people what would happen if it did, or you are sorry that it didn’t take place.
Example:
1. If she had studied Chapter 3, she would have passed the exam. (That means because Mary did not study Chapter 3, she failed the exam.)
2. I feel sick. I wish I had put on more clothes last night. (That means I am sorry that I didn’t put on more clothes last night, and so, I feel sick now.)
Note that would + have passed (present perfect) is used for the result of the action – studying Chapter 3 before the exam.
You can go to http://www.englishtenseswithcartoons.co ... st_perfect for more details. Write to me if you have any questions on the use of tense in English.

Uncle Leung

Liangfuji, or Uncle Leung had been a vice-principal and senior secondary English teacher for 36 years before he retired two years ago. He holds a BA degree in English (HK Chinese University), an MEd degree in teach of English (HK University) and 3 post graduate certificates of education from the two HK universities and Wolverhampton University in England. Uncle Leung is also the co-writer of two English textbooks for senior secondary students in Hong Kong.