Past Perfect for Kids & Teens

The past perfect is used to show that an action was completed before another action in the past. You can use the past perfect: 1. When one action happened before another action in the past. 2. In reported speech, when talking about something that happened before the time you are speaking about. 3. To show a cause-and-effect relationship in the past. Example: He was tired because he had worked all day. Structure: The first action (the one that happened first) must use the past perfect. The second action uses the simple past tense. Affirmative: subject + had + past participle Example: She had finished her homework before dinner. Negative: subject + had not (hadn't) + past participle Example: She hadn't finished her homework before dinner. Interrogative Form: had + subject + past participle? Example: Had she finished her homework before dinner? Remember, the past perfect is always used with the word "had" before the past participle. Past participle forms for common verbs: - go → gone - eat → eaten - see → seen - write → written - do → done - have → had - make → made - take → taken - come → come - say → said