Past Perfect Simple and Continuous with Mike Hardinge - AIRC91
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In this episode: The past perfect simple and continuous with special guest Mike Hardinge
What is the Past Perfect?
Use: The Past Perfect is the past before the past. When we are already talking about the past and we want to talk about an earlier past time.It can be in a Simple or Continuous/Progressive form.
PAST PERFECT SIMPLE
Something that happened before another action in the past. It can also show that something happened before a specific time in the past.Focus tends to be on the completion of the action/state, not the continuity of it.
Form: had/ ’d + past participle (had eaten, had been, had forgotten, had seen etc)
Let’s see where the past perfect simple fits in. To do this we have to look at a much more ‘important’ tense ‘the past simple’.The past simple forms the basis of a narrative; it gives us a sequence of events:
Maybe last night (1) you stayed up (didn’t go to bed) to watch a film and (2) went to bed too late. In the morning, (3) you didn’t hear your alarm. (4) You woke up late. (5) You got dressed in an awful hurry, (6) didn’t have breakfast and (7) rushed out of the house. Then (8) you realised you HAD FORGOTTEN your keys.
The verbs in the story have a ‘fixed’ order, except for ‘had forgotten’, which takes us back to before or during when (5) you got dressed - maybe you put on another jacket or before (7) you rushed out of the house - you didn’t check to see if you had your keys.
Past perfect simple usually takes us back to a previous stage of a narrative.
It is very useful for giving reasons:
You couldn’t get back into your house (why?) because you HAD FORGOTTEN your keys.or obviously it could be a negative action, an action not taken, which is the case here:you couldn’t get back into your house because you HADN'T TAKEN your keys.
If you had gone to bed at the right time, none of this would have happened.
Examples: When Mike arrived, we had already recorded a podcastI’d never seen such an excellent system for learning phrasal verbs before I saw Mike’s CD.After she’d studied Mike’s phrasal verb CD, she understood the subject much better.We’d had our old printer for 8 years before we bought that new one. (two ‘hads’. “ ’d” = “had”)
Question:(different word order) Had you ever won an award before you won in Manchester last year?Negative: (with NOT) I hadn’t/had not studied Spanish, before I came to Spain.
Reza arrived late. By the time he arrived, we had already ordered our food from the waiter. As soon as he’d lit/he had lit his cigarette, the bus arrived at the stop. No sooner had he lit (OBLIGATORY INVERSION) his cigarette than the bus arrived at the stop.Reza and Craig spoke about INVERSION in episode 78 ( http://www.inglespodcast.com/2015/11/22/sentence-inversions-airc78/ )
PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS
Use: Focus tends to be on the continuity of the activity/process. Something that started in the past and continued up to a particular time in the past.Can be used for more temporary actions/situations or a repeated action or a longer action interrupted by another action. Often there’s evidence that the action had been continuing more or less up to point.
I HAD LIVED in Salamanca for two years before I came to Valencia. (use simple to stress the completed action)I HAD BEEN LIVING in Salamanca for two years before I came to Valencia. (use continuous to stress the continuity of an action that may, or may not, be unfinished)
Present perfect simple: I HAVE READ fifteen books this year. (focus on the number of books completed)Present perf