Thursday 9 February 2012

PAST PERFECT TENSE

Once again another presentation about grammar, it was past perfect tense. This presentation was done by Miss Zu herself, because I think Miss Zu explain much better than the student since this topic is quite hard to understand if the person did not know about this. By explanation from miss Zu i know about past perfect tense very well.

Past perfect, form

The Past Perfect tense in English is composed of two parts: the past tense of the verb tohave (had) + the past participle of the main verb.
Subjecthadpast participle
Wehaddecided...
Affirmative  
Shehadgiven.
Negative  
Wehadn'tasked.
Interrogative  
Hadtheyarrived?
Interrogative negative  
Hadn'tyoufinished?
Example: to decidePast perfect
AffirmativeNegativeInterrogative
I had decidedI hadn't decidedHad I decided?
You had decidedYou hadn't decidedHad you decided?
He, she, it had decidedHe hadn't decidedHad she decided?
We had decidedWe hadn't decidedHad we decided?
You had decidedYou hadn't decidedHad you decided?
They had decidedThey hadn't decidedHad they decided?

Past perfect, function

The past perfect refers to a time earlier than before now. It is used to make it clear that one event happened before another in the past. It does not matter which event is mentioned first - the tense makes it clear which one happened first.
In these examples, Event A is the first or earliest event, Event B is the second or latest event:
Event AEvent B
John had gone outwhen I arrived in the office.
had saved my documentbefore the computer crashed.
When they arrivedwe had already started cooking
He was very tiredbecause he hadn't slept well.

Past perfect + just

'Just' is used with the past perfect to refer to an event that was only a short time earlier than before now, e.g.
a. The train had just left when I arrived at the station.
b. She had just left the room when the police arrived.
c. I had just put the washing out when it started to rain.

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