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Welcome to English Grammar Spot. This lesson is about the past perfect.
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In this lesson I am going to teach you how to
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form a past perfect
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and when to use
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a past perfect.
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But before we get started it's good to know that in the English language we have
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regular,
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and irregular verbs.
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It is advisable that you study the most commonly used irregular verbs.
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Now let's get started.
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Take a look at these sentences:
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I had painted the door yellow.
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They had paid for dinner themselves.
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Both these sentences are in the past perfect tense.
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How do we form a past perfect?
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For the regular verbs we use to auxiliary verb to have
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in it's past form which is had,
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and the past participle.
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The past participle can be made by adding -ed to the base form of the verb.
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For example I had kissed her.
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You had worked late.
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He had cleared the table.
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She had placed it on the floor.
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It had snowed.
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For the plural forms we do the same.
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We had walked to school.
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You had watched the tennis match and they had marked the tests. they have marked the tests
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No we need to pay extra attention attention to verbs that end in an -e, such as live,
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close and wipe.
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The verbs use had
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and a part participle
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but,
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when forming a past particple we only use the base form of the verb and add a 'd'.
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For example:
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I had lived there
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He had closed the window
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They had wiped the floor.
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We also need to pay
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extra attention to verbs that end a - y,
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especially those preceded by consonant such as spy and study.
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Here the 'y' becomes an 'i'
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For example:
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He had spied on his neighbours
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and we had studied hard.
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Now let's have a look at the past perfect for the irregular verbs,
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again we use the past simple form of
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to have
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and a past participle
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but here the past participle has a unique past perfect form.
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For example:
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I had built that shed with my own two hands.
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The infinitive form of the verb is 'to build.'
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She had bought some flowers at the market. The infinitve form of the verb is 'to buy.'
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We had run the marathon.
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The infinitive form of the verb is 'to run.'
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Let's have a look at the past perfect in questions for the regular forms
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again we use the past simple form of the auxiliary verb to have
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and the past participle.
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Again
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the base form of the verb and 'ed.'
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Had she talked to him?
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Had you kicked the ball?
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Had they worked on a farm?
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For the irregular verbs,
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we also use
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the auxiliary verb to have, so had
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and the past participle and again the unique past perfect form
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Had she quit her job?
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Had you driven her car?
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Had they paid for dinner?
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Let's have alook at the past perfect in negations.
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First the regular verbs,
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we use had
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plus not contracting it into hadn't
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and the past participle
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which again is made by adding 'ed' to the base form of the verb.
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I hadn't listened to the news.
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It hadn't rained since Friday. They hadn't closed the window.
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For the irregular verbs we use had and not contracting it into hadn't,
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and the past participle
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but again here
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the past participle has a unique past perfect form.
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For example
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She hadn't quit her job.
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You hadn't ever driven her car
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and they hadn't paid for dinner.
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Now let's have a look at when we use a past perfect.
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We use a past perfect for things that happened in the past but before something
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else in the past. So we use it to co-ordinate the past. We have two things
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happening in the past perfect
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and the past perfect happened
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at the furthest point in the past. For example I had brushed my teeth before I went to bed.
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So first I brushed my teeth and then I went to bed and both these things happened
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in the past.
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Another example is: They decided to buy a car after the old one had broken down.
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So first their old car broke down
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and then they decided to buy a car.
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I thank you for your attention. For regular updates please subscribe to
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youtube.com/englishgrammarspot
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or go to www.englishgrammarspot.com