PAST PARTICIPLE

Past simple and past perfect 

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Grammatical Rules

Form 

As in the present perfect, the perfect past is formed with the auxiliary verb "to have" and the past participle. The auxiliary verb will be in the past.

subject	Auxiliar verb	Short form	Past participle
I, you, he, she, it, we, they	had	I’d, you’d, he’d, she’d, it’d, we’d, they’d	studied, visited, worked…

Note: Be careful because the contraction "-'d" is also used with the modal verb "would" to form the conditional. As such, the short form "I'd" can have two different meanings. We can distinguish between these two meanings by the form of the main verb that follows them. If we mean "I'd" in the sense of perfect past, the main verb is in the form of a past participle, while with the conditional, "I'd" is followed by the verb in infinitive. For more information, see the lesson on conditional phrases.

Structure

1. Affirmative Sentences

Subject + "had" + past participle

I had [I’d] visited the Louvre before, so I knew where the Mona Lisa was.

They had [They’d] studied English before they went to London.

Henry changed careers because he had [he’d] worked as an accountant for many years and was bored.

2. Negative Sentences

Subject + "had" + "not" + past participle

I had not [hadn’t] visited the Louvre before so I didn’t know where the Mona Lisa was.

They had not [hadn’t] studied English before they went to London.

Henry changed careers even though he had not [hadn’t] worked as an accountant for long.

3. Interrogative Sentences

"Had" + subject + past participle?

How did you know where the Mona Lisa was? Had you visited the Louvre before?

Had they studied English before they went to London?

Had Henry worked as an accountant for long before he changed careers?

Uses

1. We use the perfect past to refer to an action or event that started in the past and that precedes another action also in the past. The action that occurred first is in the past perfect and the one that follows in simple past.

EXAMPLE: 

I’d read the book before I saw the movie.

Donna had just left when you called.

Had you ever flown before the trip to France?

2. It is used for actions that occurred before a specific time in the past.

EXAMPLE: 

I had already woken up when the alarm clock rang at 7am.

He hadn’t been to France before the trip in 2008.

3. Also, as in the present perfect, with some verbs we use the perfect past for situations that started in the past and that continued to a specific point in the past.

EXAMPLE: 

She had only owned one car before she bought her new BMW.

I’d been depressed for a long time before I changed jobs. Exercise on Simple Past and Past Perfect Exercise 1 Choose the correct tense (Simple Past or Past Perfect). The wind blewhad blown away the leaves that we collectedhad collected. She threwhad thrown away the letter that she wrotehad written. They showedhad shown me the pictures, they tookhad taken during their holidays. In the evening, the children toldhad told their daddy what they sawhad seen at the zoo. The boy washad been very sorry for what he didhad done. Taken from: https://www.ef.com.co/recursos-aprender-ingles/gramatica-inglesa/past-perfect/  By: Stephanie Gómez.