I had cooked already before I started taking classes.

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Past Perfect Simple

Advanced

After this lesson, you will be able to talk about events that happened at specific times in the past.

How to form the Past Perfect

We form the 'past perfect' tense with:

In other words, had + main verb (past participle):

Why use the Past Perfect

Past perfect tense can tell us that:

1. Something occurred before another action in the past.

Jim had already finished his lunch when Bob saw him. (= both actions [Jim finishing lunch and Bob seeing Jim] happened in the past, but lunch came first.)

2. Something happened before a specific time in the past.

I had moved to Japan before I turned 18.
He couldn’t buy the cake because he had forgotten his wallet at home.
We had never traveled to Germany before he invited us.
I had taken a shower before I went out.
I fixed the roof because it had been damaged by the storm.
I had not entered the room before you called me.
She hadn’t had so much fun for a long time before meeting you all.
I told her that you had promised to help us.
The children who had not had those lessons in school were taught separately.
Had she studied English before she moved to the USA?

Fill in the blanks with the past perfect simple form of the verb in parentheses.

I (live) in Hong Kong, before I moved to New Delhi.

By the time this company contacted me, I (find) a new job already.

They (live) together for five years, before they got married.

The children (eat) so much for lunch that they could not eat dinner that day.

We (want) to move to Europe, but then my mother got sick, so we decided not to.

My secretary (print) the documents in time for our meeting at 3 pm yesterday.

How long (date) before you got married?

How long (wait) before the police arrived?

Make sentences using the past perfect and the following words.

Example

lived together for five years, got married → "They had lived together for five years before they got married."