Jill was the most beautiful girl John
has
ever
met
.
Related topics:
Present perfect with superlative forms of adjectives
The difference between the past simple and the past perfect
When the events of a story are told in the order in which they occurred, the past simple tense is used:
I
missed
the last bus, so I only
got
home at about 6 o'clock. I
was
really tired, so I
took
a hot bath. Then I
made
some dinner and
watched
a film. At 10, I
was
in bed.
However, if the events are told in a different order or there are references to an earlier time, the past perfect tense is used to express the earlier events:
I only got home at about 6 o'clock because I
had missed
the last bus. I was really tired, so I took a hot bath. Then I made some dinner and watched a film I
had borrowed
from my friend Sheila earlier that week. At 10, I was in bed. It
had been
a long day.
Related topics:
Past simple for completed actions in the past
Past perfect for actions completed before a point in the past
Past perfect continuous
Form: past perfect continuous
Past perfect continuous for continuous events in the past
Past perfect continuous for habitual actions in the past
Form: past perfect continuous
HAD + BEEN + PRESENT PARTICIPLE (VERB-ING)
The past perfect continuous (also called the past perfect progressive) is formed with had + been (the past participle form of be) + the present participle -ing form of the verb.
Affirmative
Subject
Auxiliary
Verb (present participle)
I
had
been
waiting
for hours.
You
He/She/It
We
You
They
Negative
Subject
Auxiliary 1
not
Auxiliary 2
Verb (present participle)
I
had
not
been
waiting
long.
You
He/She/It
We
You
They
The contracted form hadn't is often used instead of had not in spoken and in informal written language.
Interrogative
(Question word)
Auxiliary 1
Subject
Auxiliary 2
Verb (present participle)
How long
had
I
been
waiting?
you
he/she/it
we
you
they
Related topics:
The forms of the participle
Subject-auxiliary inversion in questions
Past perfect continuous for continuous events in the past
The past perfect continuous tense is used to express that an action started before a point in time in the past and that it was still in progress or it had just stopped. This point can be implied or expressed with a time expression or a clause with a verb in the past simple tense:
It
had been snowing
all night.
By 2005, George
had been living
in Scotland for 20 years.
When I got to her house, she
had been waiting
for hours.
Related topics:
Present perfect continuous with FOR and SINCE
Present perfect continuous for continuous events that have just finished
Future perfect continuous for continuous events in the future
Past perfect continuous for habitual actions in the past
The past perfect continuous is used to express repeated or habitual actions happening over a period of time before a point in time in the past:
I
had been getting up
at five o'clock all week, so on Friday I was completely exhausted.
Related topics:
Present perfect continuous for habitual actions
The difference between the past perfect and the past perfect continuous
In contrast with the past perfect simple tense, which emphasises the result of a completed action, the past perfect continuous focuses on the duration or the activity itself:
By then, he
had eaten
all the food.
(there was nothing left)
He put down the fork he
had been eating
with and left the table.
Present simple to express past
Headlines
In news headlines, the present simple tense refers to past time:
WAR CRIMINAL
ESCAPES
FROM COURTROOM
(A war criminal has escaped from a courtroom.)
REAL MADRID
WINS AGAINST
MANCHESTER UNITED
(Real Madrid won against Manchester United yesterday.)
Historical present
The present simple tense is used in narratives for purposes of dramatization to express past events. This use of the present simple is called the historical present.