Intermediate English Grammar for ESL Learners - Robin Torres-Gouzerh 2016
The past perfect
5 The perfect tenses
The past perfect tense expresses an action that began in the past and ended in the past. It is called the past perfect because the auxiliary have is conjugated in the past tense.
Until yesterday evening, I had never seen that movie.
The cat simply left the house. Someone had forgotten to shut the back door.
He had already showered when we arrived.
When the conjunctions before or after are used to introduce a clause, the past perfect is rarely necessary, because the time relationship is already established and is usually clear. However, the past perfect may be used, even though the simple past suffices. Compare the following sets of examples.
Catherine had arrived before we called her.
Catherine arrived before we called her.
After Anna had left, I went for a walk.
After Anna left, I went for a walk.
Exercise 5.5 Read each sentence and think about the time relationship established by the verb forms, then answer the question that follows.
Example Peter was leaving the gym when I got there. Elizabeth had left the gym when I got there.
Whom did I run into when I got to the gym? Peter
1. Ralph was walking into the kitchen when the cell phone rang. Pedro walked into the kitchen after the cell phone rang.
Who expected the cell phone to ring?
2. Mrs. Wilson taught at UT-Arlington for eight years. Mr. Prince has taught at UT-Arlington for eight years.
Who is teaching at UT-Arlington now?
3. Tyler went to buy groceries because he was running out of food. Robin went to buy groceries because he had run out of food.
Who is planning ahead?
4. When it stopped snowing, Lucas was walking to the bus stop. When it stopped snowing, Bertrand walked to the bus stop.
Which of the two probably caught a cold?
5. Lucy was leaving the room when I walked in. Ruben had left the room when I walked in.
Whom did I run into when entering the room?
6. She looked across the street, and Paul was waving at her. She looked across the street, and Fabien waved at her.
Who had already started waving at her before she looked across the street?
7. Lucas put on a jacket because he had been waiting at the bus stop for too long. Bertrand put on a jacket because he was waiting at the bus stop.
Who was the first one to put on his jacket?
8. When I finally made it to the restaurant, Alicia had already ordered a cocktail. When I finally made it to the restaurant, Marie ordered a cocktail.
Who was drinking when I finally made it to the restaurant?
9. Kenji lived in Tokyo for two years. (is uncle has been living in Okinawa for twelve years.
Who is still living in Japan?
Exercise 5.6 Complete each sentence, using either the simple past or the past perfect tense of the verb(s) in parentheses. In some cases, either tense is possible.
Example She had already finished (already + finish) her graduate studies before she turned (turn) 21 years old.
1. There was a strong wind and it was raining hard, but by the time my shift at work ... (be) over, the storm ... (stop).
2. The anthropologist ... (leave) the Yucatan region once she ... (collect) enough information and ... (record) a decent amount of data.
3. I was late. Professor Griffin ... (already + give) a quiz when I ... (get) to class. She ... (also + hand out) the syllabus for next semester.
4. I ... (feel) much better after I ... (take) the aspirin you ... (give) me.
5. He ... (be) a curator for the Metropolitan Museum before he ... (become) a writer.
6. Sophie ... (lock) herself out of the apartment. She ... (walk out) the door thinking she ... (take) everything she would need for the day. In the rush, she ... (forget) her keys on the kitchen counter.
7. Up until then, it ... (be) a beautiful day. But when we finally ... (make) it to the gates of Yosemite National
Park, the clouds ... (block out) the sun and the scenery was no longer charming.
Had used as an auxiliary verb is commonly contracted with personal pronouns when people speak or write informally: I’d, he’d, and so on.
Exercise 5.7 Complete each sentence, using either the simple past or the past perfect tense of the verb(s) in parentheses.
1. Yesterday at a bar, I ... (run) into Janet, an old friend of mine from college. I ... (not + see) her in almost five years. I immediately ... (recognize) her even though
she ... (change) her hair color and ... (lose) at least five kilos.
2. I almost missed my train. All the other passengers ... (already + occupy) all the cabins in my assigned car by the time I ... (buy) my ticket and ... (make) my way to the platform.
3. I ... (never + see) any of Ansel Adams’ photographs before I ... (visit) the Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
4. Millions of years ago, dinosaurs ... (roam) the planet, but they ... (become) extinct by the time humankind ... (evolve).
5. The meeting ... (already + begin) by the time I ... (get) there, so I quietly ... (sit down) in the back row and ... (try) to catch up with the ongoing topic of discussion.