The Past Perfect Tense and The Past Perfect Progressive (Continuous) Tense

THE PAST PERFECT TENSE

FORM
[ had + past participle ]

EXAMPLES:

• You had studied English before you moved to New York.
• When I woke up this morning, my roommate had left already.
• After I had eaten my dinner, I went to see a movie.

The past perfect tense is used to refer to actions that took place and were completed in the past. The past perfect is often used to emphasize that one action, event or condition ended before another past action, event, or condition began.

Each of the highlighted verbs in the following sentences is in the past perfect.

• Angelo arrived at 5:00 p.m. but Mr. Kintanar had closed the store.
  

- All the events in this sentence took place in the past, but the act of closing the store takes place before Angelo arrives at the store.

• After we located the restaurant that Keith had raved about, we ate supper there every Friday.

- Here the praise ("had raved") precedes the finding ("located") of the restaurant. Both actions took place sometime before the moment of speaking or writing.

• The elephant had eaten all the hay so we fed it oats for a week.

- In this sentence, both actions take place in the past, but the eating of the hay ("had eaten") preceded the eating of the oats ("fed").

• The heat wave had lasted three weeks.

- While the sentence "The heat wave has lasted three weeks" suggests that a condition began in the past and continues into the present, this sentence describes an action that began and ended sometime in the past ("had lasted"). By using the the past perfect the writer indicates that the heat wave has no connection to any events occurring in the present.

• After she had learned to drive, Alice felt more independent.

- Here the learning took place and was completed at a specific time in the past. By using the past perfect rather than the simple past ("learned"), the writer emphasizes that the learning preceded the feeling of independence.

THE PAST PERFECT PROGRESSIVE (CONTINUOUS) TENSE

FORM
[ had been + present participle ]

EXAMPLES:

• You had been writing there for more than two hours when she finally arrived.
• She had been working at that company for three years when it went out of business.
• Jason was tired because he had been jogging.

The past perfect progressive (continuous) tense is used to indicate that a continuing action in the past began before another past action began or interrupted the first action.

Each of the highlighted compound verbs in the following sentences is in the past perfect progressive tense.

• The toddlers had been running around the school yard for ten minutes before the teachers shooed them back inside.

- Here the action of the toddlers ("had been running") is ongoing in the past and precedes the actions of the teachers ("shooed") which also takes place in the past.

• We had been talking about repainting the front room for three years and last night we finally bought the paint.

- In this example, the ongoing action of "talking" precedes another past action ("bought").

• A construction crew had been digging one pit after another in the middle of my street for three days before they found the water main.

-Here, the action of digging ("had been digging") took place in the past and occurred over a period of time. The digging was followed by the action of finding ("found").

• Sheila had been reading mystery novels for several years before she discovered the works of Agatha Christie.

- In this sentence, the act of discovery ("discovered") occurred in the past but after the ongoing and repeated action of reading ("had been reading").

• The chief's assistant had been chopping vegetables for several minutes before he realized that he had minced his apron strings.

- This sentence is a bit more complex in that it contains three different past verb tenses. The sequence of tenses conveys a complex set of information. The past perfect progressive ("had been chopping") is used to emphasize the ongoing nature of the past act of chopping. While a second past progressive ("had been mincing") could be used, the past perfect ("had minced") is used to suggest the act of mincing was completed. The simple past ("realized") is used to describe the action closest to the present, an action that followed both the chopping and the mincing.

EXERCISES [ THE PAST PERFECT TENSE AND THE PAST PERFECT PROGRESSIVE (CONTINUOUS) TENSE ]