Today on LetThemTalk we're going to look at everything you need to know about the
past perfect. When to use it when NOT to use it
and a little trick to help you remember when to use it and at least one
situation that you probably, probably didn't know that you have to use it yes
that's a super advanced point so stay tuned for that too and I'm joined today
by a terracotta warrior let's call him Bob
yes that's right Bob and Bob's going to help me explain it all aren't you Bob?
aren't you?
Hello and welcome to LetThemTalk and today we're doing the past perfect so
let's get straight into it and I'll start with how to form it and I
hope you know this already so I'm going to do it very quickly so all you need is
HAD + a PAST PARTICIPLE and in the negative HADN'T plus a PAST PARTICIPLE
lot of examples coming up in a moment. So when do we use it? We use the past
perfect when we are talking about something in the past and then we talk
about something else that happened before that - yes it's that simple.
There are always two pasts with the most recent usually coming first in
the sentence but not always. So let's have a look at some
examples and explore when we use it "When John arrived he noticed that he had left
his documents in the car". So John arrived that's the first past and it's in the
past simple and then comes the second pass referring to an earlier time and
that's in the past perfect "he noticed he had left the
documents in the car". When he met for the second date I realized that I had
forgotten her name". "I had never seen snow before I moved to Sweden." Here you see
the past perfect part comes first remember the more recent past is in
the past simple and it might just be a thought or a realization it doesn't have
to be a big action for example "mmm 20% huh that's disappointing
because I thought you had studied hard for the exam." So in this example what HE
THOUGHT what happens in the past just until the
present and the HAD STUDIED refers to what he believed had happened earlier.
When there are lots of events going on in the past how do we know whether to
use the past simple or the past perfect? Now think of a man doing some stuff in
the past and every time he looks over his shoulder to a past event that's the
past perfect. Let me explain or let my friend show you what I mean
Bob. "Bob was walking down the road on the way to the station, it was a beautiful
day, the sun was shining so he had decided to walk even though it was quite
far. He was going to London for an important business meeting.
Then suddenly he realized that he had left his train tickets at home. His train
was leaving soon. He didn't have time to go back. Oh no this is annoying! he
thought. Then he phoned his wife hoping she hadn't left for work already.
Fortunately she hadn't. She had found his tickets and would drive to the station
and give it to him there. Phew what a relief! He thought and continued walking."
Now there are certain words and phrases which are often followed by the past
perfect and this will help you remember it more easily so we've already looked
at THOUGHT. "I thought I had taken my passport but I hadn't" and it's also
common in indirect speech after TOLD and SAID so
let's look at some examples "she told me that she had studied at Leeds University"
and remember it's important that we say HAD STUDIED and not STUDIED because the
action finished before she told me so she is not studying there any more.
"I told her that I had been working at the factory for 20 years"
That's a past perfect continuous but you can use that too. "He said that he had
changed his mind." "She said that she had lived in Buenos Aires." After I
DIDN'T KNOW we use the past perfect "I didn't know that you had been a ballet
dancer" after I REALIZED. "I realized that he'd beaten the world record." after I WAS
UNDER THE IMPRESSION. "I was under the impression that he had taken drugs." After
I NOTICED "I noticed that he had been waiting for a long time". Now we can
look at some common mistakes and one common mistake is to use the past
perfect with one time for example "The last time I had seen John he was wearing
a green scarf" No that's wrong no no there is only one past here "the last time I saw
John he was wearing a green scarf". There is only one past "A long time ago I
had lived in a castle" No again that's wrong there's only one past "A long
time ago I lived in a castle" the past perfect is only used to talk about
events that are separate and distinct to an earlier event and finished before the
later event. So for example "I opened the door and then I had seen a black cat"
no again that's wrong "I opened the door I walk down the road and then I saw a
black cat" all these events are part of the same sequence of events So all are
in the past simple and here are two more cases when you use the past
perfect. In the third conditional and in mixed conditionals so let's have
a look at an example of that so for the third conditional "If I had known the
truth, I would have behaved differently". "If we had arrived earlier, we wouldn't
have missed the Train" That's a third conditional and a mixed
conditional "if I'd studied French at school I would speak it better now" we'll look
at conditionals in another video
There's one more case and this is the super advanced point that I talked to
you about before. We use the past perfect tense to talk about things we wanted to
do but we didn't do and these are used with verbs such as HOPE, WANT, EXPECT,
MEAN, THINK ABOUT for example. "I had hoped to have lunch with you today but you
cancelled". "I had wanted to become a musician but I didn't make the grade."
So both these cases you could use the past simple and it's perfectly correct. "I
wanted to become a musician but I didn't make the grade." That's perfectly correct
but in these cases I'm just telling you about
the past but we use the past perfect talk about an unrealized dream or to
emphasize a past regret let's look at a couple more examples "Poor
Johnny had expected more presents on his birthday". "I had meant to tell you the
truth I'm sorry I didn't". ok that's it thank you for watching and as always
stay mellow more english language videos coming soon