Past Perfect - Simple Past - contrasted
1) Use
| Past Perfect | Simple Past |
|---|---|
| together with the Simple Past When two past actions are combined - the first action, which was completed before the second one began, is put into Past Perfect. |
action finished in the past |
| the past equivalent of the Present Perfect | series of completed actions in the past |
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2) Signal words
| Past Perfect | Simple Past |
|---|---|
| no unambiguous ones | yesterday, last week, a month ago, in 2002 |
3) Form
| Past Perfect | Simple Past |
|---|---|
| havd + past participle | regular verbs: infinitive + ed irregular verbs: 2nd column of the table of the irregular verbs |
4) Examples
We use the the same form of the auxiliary (had) every time regardless the subject.
| Past Perfect | Simple Past |
|---|---|
| 4-1 Affirmative sentences | |
| He had played hockey. He'd played hockey. |
He played hockey. |
| Past Perfect | Simple Past |
|---|---|
| 4-2 Negative sentences | |
| He had not played hockey. He'd not played hockey. He hadn't played hockey. |
He did not play hockey. He didn't play hockey. |
| Past Perfect | Simple Past |
|---|---|
| 4-3 Questions | |
| Had he played hockey? | Did he play hockey? |
5) Spelling (Past Perfect and Simple Past)
| stopped (Double the consonant after a short vowel.) |
| loved (one -e at the end of the word -> Leave out the -e and add -d.) |
| worried (consonant before -y ->Change to -ie.) |
