The Past Perfect

By: Sean Savoie

I would very much like to continue our study of the simple past and past continuous verb tenses; however, it may be best to introduce the past perfect verb tense in comparison with other past verb tenses to help clear up some misunderstanding about the past tense in general.

The easiest way to master the use of verb tenses is to think in terms of time words. Consider for a moment the many different time expressions that exist: after, before, when, now, while, as, whenever, since, already, still, until, then, currently, as soon as, once, as long as, at the moment, later, these days, soon, ages ago, etc… Verb tense can certainly be confusing, but there are still only three fundamental time ideas that people express, then (in the past), now, and then (in the future). Each of these three time periods has three relationships, before, during, and after. This makes a total of nine different points in time. But because we are studying the past tenses, we should first consider these three relationships; before then, then, and after then. Or, to say it another way; before that time, at that time, and after that time... all in the past tense. Take a look at the examples below:

1) When she finished shopping, her son had done his homework.

2) When she finished shopping, her son was doing his homework.

3) When she finished shopping, her son did his homework.

The distinction between these three sentences is very important. The first sentence means that her son finished his homework, and then she finished shopping. The second sentence means that her son was doing his homework at the time she finished shopping. The third sentence means that her son began to do homework after she finished shopping.

In the above three sentences, the expression "when she finished shopping" is an adverbial clause of time. It may help to simplify this expression by simply saying "then" or "at that time". If we rewrite the sentences, understanding the relationship may become simpler. We can also use the expressions "already" and "still" to make the time ideas perfectly clear.

1) Her son had already done his homework at that time.

2) Her son was still doing his homework at that time.

3) Her son did his homework at that time (which can also be worded as "Her son began to do his homework at that time")

The simple past is the only past tense that can express one simple time idea. In other words, the simple past does not need to be connected to any other time idea, event, or action. I can simply say, "I ate some very good food yesterday." No other action or meaning needs to relate to this statement. However, the past continuous and past perfect always relate to another event or action. Sometimes this event or action is not spoken, but it is always part of the idea. Seeing as we more carefully examined the simple past and the past continuous last week, we should now take a more precise look at the past perfect.

For people who are struggling to better understand the past perfect, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that the past perfect has only one time meaning; it always means "before then". This is much easier than the present perfect, which has four possible time meanings. The bad news is that the "then" idea in the past perfect can keep changing. For example, if I tell a story about what I did last week, the actions in the story may move through time. On Monday I went to the movie theater and saw a great film. On Tuesday I cleaned my whole house. On Wednesday I worked all day. Etc.... Therefore, you must be clear when using the past perfect. Because the past perfect always means "before then", the time idea must be understood. If not, the listener or reader will ask the question "Before when? Before which event did that event occur?" For this reason, and also because there are time expressions that make time relationships perfectly clear, the past perfect is not used very often. Its effective use is still extremely important, however.

Since the past perfect can be confusing, people often use the simple past instead of the past perfect when the time idea is very obvious. We can take another look at the example sentences:

1) When she finished shopping, her son had done his homework.

2) When she finished shopping, her son was doing his homework.

3) When she finished shopping, her son did his homework.

Sentence number two cannot be reworded so easily, but we can reword sentences one and three in a more simple way below:

1) Her son did his homework, and then she finished shopping.

3) She finished shopping, and then her son did his homework.

Also, numbers one and three can be expressed using the time words "before and after". Because these time words make the time relationship extremely clear, the careful use of verb tense is less necessary. Look at how clear the sentences are below:

1) Before she finished shopping, her son did his homework.

3) After she finished shopping, her son did his homework.

Though it may be easier to express these ideas using only simple past verb tenses, this kind of usage is a serious limitation. Understanding and using verb tenses well, especially when speaking English as a second language, is often a headache; but, as is true of most grammar, the use of more complex verb tenses ultimately gives the speaker or writer much more freedom and power.