PAST PERFECT TENSE
CONJUGATION OF THE VERB 'to buy''
AFFIRMATIVE SENTENCE
(Sub+had+ Past Participle form of the verb)
1st Person (Singular):- I had bought.
1st Person (Plural):- We had bought.
2nd Person (Singular):- You had bought.
2nd Person (Plural):- You had bought.
3rd Person (Singular):- He/She had bought.
Neepa had bought.
3rd Person (Plural):- They had bought.
Neepa and Deepa had bought.
NEGATIVE SENTENCE
(Sub+had+not+been+ Present Participle form of the verb)
1st Person (Singular):- I had not bought.
*1st Person (Plural) :- We had not boyght.
*2nd Person (Singular)*:- You had not bought.
2nd Person (Plural):- You had not bought.
*3rd Person (Singular)*:- He/She had not bought // Ritesh had not bought.
3rd Person (Plural):- They had not bought.
Ritesh and Deepam had not bought.
INTERROGATIVE SENTENCE
(Had+ Sub+ been+ Past Participle form of the verb?)
1st Person (Singular):- Had I bought?
1st Person (Plural):- Had we bought?
2nd Person (Singular):-
Had you bought?
2nd Person (Plural):- Had you been living?
3rd Person (Singular):- Had he bought?/ Had she bought? Had Parikshit bought?
3rd Person(Plural):-Had they bought? /Had Nilakshi bought? Had Neelakshi and Neelesh bought?
USES
i) The past perfect tense is used to denote an action which had been completed before another action had begun.
The earlier event is expressed in the past perfect tense and the later is in the past indefinite tense.
He reached the play ground after the play had begun.
He had entered the class room before the teacher started the class.
They had reached the station before the train departed.
We reached the station after the train had left.
ii) Past Perfect Tense is used to express an unfulfilled condition in the past.
If you had studied more,, you would had passed.
(We can also say
Had you studied more, you would have passed.)
If you had scolded you son earlier, his behaviour would have corrected.
If you had met the chairman, he would have helped you.
If I had been the Prime Minister, I would have made you the Education Minister.
iii) The past perfect tense is used to express a unfulfilled wish.
I wish I had accepted the job.
I wish they had supported our proposal.
iv) When we looked backward from a point of time in the past at an event that happened earlier in the past, we use the past perfect tense .
EXAMPLES
At 6:00 pm all the students had returned to the hostel.
By evening, we had completed the arrangement for the party.
Thomson and Martinet write- The past perfect tense is also the past equivalent of the simple past tense, and is used when the narrator or subject looks back earlier action from a certain point in the past.
Tom was 23 when our story begins.His father had died five years before and since then Tom had lived alone. His father had advised him not to get married till he was 35 and Tom intended to follow his advice.
V) The past perfect tense can be used with till/ until and before to emphasise the completetion or expected completion of an action. But note that in till/until + past perfect tense + simple past combinations, the simple past action may precede the past perfect action; and in before+past perfect+ simple past combinations, the simple past action will always precede the past perfect action.
He refused to go till he had seen all the pictures.
He did not wait till we had finished our meal.
Before we had finished our meal he ordered us to go back.
Before we had walked ten miles he complained of sore feet.
(A Practical English Grammar/ Thomson and Martinet.)
PAST PERFECT WITH Hardly/Scarcely
* Had is placed just after 'Hardly/Scarcely'
* Hardly/Scarcely had we started the game when it began to rain.
* (=> We had hardly started the game when it began to rain.)
*
PAST PERFECT with ' No sooner ....... than':-
No sooner had we started the game than it began to rain.
We may also use Simple Past Tense
No sooner did we start the game than it started to rain.(You will learn more about 'No sooner .. .than' in a separate chapter.)
