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.) the past equivalent of the Present Perfect	action finished in the past series of completed actions in the past

2. Signal words

Past Perfect	Simple Past
no unambiguous ones	yesterday last week a month ago in 2010

3. Form

Past Perfect	Simple Past
had + 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.

4.1. Affirmative sentences

	Past Perfect	Simple Past
Long forms	He had played hockey.	He played hockey.
Contracted forms	He'd played hockey.	not possible

4.2. Negative sentences

	Past Perfect	Simple Past
Long forms	He had not played hockey.	He did not play hockey.
Contracted forms	He hadn't played hockey.	He didn't play hockey.
	He'd not played hockey.**

** This form is rarely used.

4.3. Questions

Past Perfect	Simple Past
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 → Add only -d.)
• worried (consonant before -y → Change to -i.)

* past participle:

• regular verbs → infinitive + -ed
• irregular verbs → 3rd column of the table of the irregular verbs

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