Page 188 - Basic English Usage

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245 past time: past perfect simple and progressive

Forms
Past perfect simple

Affirmative Question Negative

| had worked had | worked? | had not worked
you had worked had you worked? you had not worked,
he had worked, etc had he worked? etc etc

Past perfect progressive

Affirmative Question Negative

| had been working
| had not been
had | been working?
working, etc
had you been
you had been

working? etc
working, etc
We use the past perfect simple to ‘go back’ to a ‘second past’. If we are
already talking about the past, we use the past perfect simple to talk
about things that had already happened at the time we are talking
about.

| realized that we had met before.
Ph aa Ss *

{ got to the party late. When | arrived,
Lucy had already gone home. \
ao le
y 2,

We often use the past perfect simple in reported speech, to talk about
things that had already happened at the time when we were talking or
thinking.
! told her that | had finished.
{ wondered who had left the door open.
! thought | had sent the cheque a week before.