Unit 4. Past tenses II. Past Perfect

+	Had + past participle	He’d started the assignment.
--	Had not + past participle	I hadn’t started the assignment
?	Had … + past participle?	Had you started the assignment?

We use the past perfect:

· when we are talking about the past and want to mention something that happened earlier:

His father was a composer and his grandfather had also been a musician. (Mozart's grandfather was a musician and then later his father became a composer) Sometimes we use words like just or already. Notice that these adverbs go between the auxiliary and the main verb:

By the time he was 17, Mozart's reputation had already begun to spread through Europe.

!!! We use the past simple if the events are mentioned in chronological order:

Mozart’s grandfather was a musician and his father was a composer.

· for an action which happened before another past action or before a stated time in the past. Ann had finished her homework by five o'clock.

· for an action which finished in the past and whose result was visible at a later point in the past. She had sprained her ankle a few days earlier and it was still hurting.

· for a general situation in the past. Everything had seemed normal at first.

· with words like when, as soon as, by the time, after to show the order of events:

When Mozart was born, five of his siblings had already died. (Mozart's siblings died first, then Mozart was born)

!!! Notice the difference in meaning between these two sentences:

When I got home, my husband cooked dinner. (= I got home and then my husband cooked dinner)

When I got home, my husband had cooked dinner. (= my husband cooked dinner before I got home)

• to talk about an indefinite time before a particular point in the past, often with words like always, sometimes, never, before, by + fixed time:

His family were richer than they had ever been before. (= they were not as rich at any time before this point in the past)

By the time he was six, the little boy had written a composition of his own,

• to report past events using reporting verbs: The man told me he had met my father a long time before.

The time expressions we use with the past perfect are: before, after, already, justf for, since, till/until, when, by the time, never, etc