Past perfect with FOR
Past perfect with superlative forms of adjectives
Form: past perfect
HAD + PAST PARTICIPLE
The past perfect is formed with had + the past participle form of the verb.
Affirmative
Subject
Auxiliary
Verb (past participle)
I
had
arrived
by then.
You
He/She/It
We
You
They
The following contracted forms are often used in spoken and in informal written language:
I had »
I'd
you had »
you'd
he/she/it had »
he'd/she'd/it'd
we had »
we'd
you had »
you'd
they had
»
they'd
Negative
Subject
Auxiliary
not
Verb (past participle)
I
had
not
arrived
by then.
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
Subject
Verb (past participle)
(How)
had
I
arrived
by then?
you
he/she/it
we
you
they
Related topics:
The forms of the participle
Subject-auxiliary inversion in questions
Appendix: irregular verb forms
Past perfect for actions completed before a point in the past
The past perfect tense is used to express that an action was completed before a point in time in the past. This point can be implied or expressed with a time expression or a clause with a verb in the past simple tense:
They
had
all
arrived
by 10 o'clock.
When he tried to stand up, he realised he
had broken
his ankle.
Contrary to a common misunderstanding, the past perfect does not express that something happened a very long time ago. What it expresses is not how long ago an event happened but rather that it happened earlier than something else:
Julius Caesar
attacked
Britain in 54 BC.
(This was quite a long time ago; still, the past simple tense is used here.)
When I got home, they
had
already
eaten
everything in the house.
(Maybe this only happened yesterday, but the point is that the eating happened before my arrival.)
Expressions which are often used with the past perfect tense: by, till, until, before, when, by the time, no sooner, hardly, scarcely, barely.
Danny
had
never
seen
a real cow
till
I showed him one last Friday.
He didn't leave
until
he
had talked
with the boss.
By the time
she got to the theatre, the play
had
already
begun
.
I
had no sooner got
home than the telephone rang.
I
had hardly/barely/scarcely fallen asleep
when there was an earthquake.
Quotes:
I had been told that the training procedure with cats was difficult. It's not. Mine had me trained in two days. - Bill Dana
Related topics:
Present perfect for past events
Future perfect for actions completed before a point in the future
HARDLY, SCARCELY, BARELY, NO SOONER
Past perfect with FOR
The preposition for is used with the past perfect tense to express that something started before a point in time in the past and was still true at that point:
When they got married, they
had
already
been
together for three years.
Related topics:
Present perfect with FOR and SINCE
Future perfect with FOR
Past perfect with superlative forms of adjectives
The past perfect is used with superlative forms of adjectives to express emphasis:
It was the strangest piece of music I
had
ever
heard
.
Jill was the most beautiful girl John
had
ever
met
.
The second sentence above implies that until that time John had never met such a beautiful girl, but since then perhaps he has. If, however, John hasn't met anybody like Jill since then, the present perfect is used instead of the past perfect: