How long had you known Susie before you fell in love with her? You might use the past perfect if the connection is clearer: In your example I don't see any connection - they are simply two events. Note that we only use the past perfect when there is a clear connection - often a causal connection - between two past events. Which verb form you use in the reply to a question is really context-dependent so it's not possible to give you a general rule. You are asking about her location at the time of the phone call because presumably she was not there when you called (she had gone out). Thus, the difference between the two sentences is as follows:ġ.You are asking about something in her past, such as her experience of travelling.Ģ. The difference is the same for bother present and past perfect. The verb 'go' has two past participles: been and gone. It's important to think about what makes sense the grammar expresses meaning rather than determining it. In fact, the reference point is often not even in the same sentence, but in another previous sentence. That reference point can occur very close to the past perfect, but it doesn't have to. This is why I assume the reference point is 'I missed the last episode' instead of 'it started'.Īs you can see, the past perfect situates an action in relation to another reference point. The idea that I was watching a programme before it started is pretty unusual, but the idea that I was watching it before missing the last episode is not. In this sentence, there are two other actions - 'it started' and 'I missed' - and so you have to choose which one the past perfect refers to. The past perfect is emphasises that one action occurs before one other action. "I had been watching that programme every week since it started, but I missed the last episode." We can also use the past perfect to make hypotheses about the past (when we imagine something). GapFillTyping_MjM0NDg= Past perfect and hypotheses Matching_MTYzMzM= Past perfect and past simple Up until that moment, I' d never believed(NOT been believing) in astrology. We do not normally use the past perfect continuous with stative verbs. I had been watching that programme every week since it started, but I missed the last episode. We often use expressions with for and since with the past perfect: Teresa wasn't at home. She had gone shopping. I couldn't get into the house. I had lost my keys. for something that happened in the past and is important at a later time in the past:.I hadn’t met him before, even though I had met his wife several times. My eighteenth birthday was the worst day I had ever had. when we are reporting our experience up to a point in the past:.
He had written three books and he was working on another one. He had been playing ever since he was a teenager.
When George died, he and Anne had been married for nearly fifty years. for something that started in the past and continued up to a given time in the past:.The past perfect is used in the same way as the present perfect, but it refers to a time in the past, not the present. We use the past perfect: The past perfect continuous is made from had been and the - ing formof a verb:
The past perfect is made from the verb had and the past participleof a verb: