Open Mind Intermediate

Unit 2 Grammar 2

PAST PERFECT
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1. Which speaker is using the past perfect? A

2. What tense is the other speaker using? past simple
3. Can you notice an error? they did they had

B: Yes, they did.

A: Had they already

left when you started the
presentation?
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1. Which answer uses the past perfect? a

2. Which of the two actions in the answer happened first?

When you arrived, I had

What happened? a
just finished cooking.

When you arrived, I just

b finished cooking.
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Other examples using the past perfect:

My parents had redecorated my room when I got

back from travelling.

I hadn't been to Argentina before this summer.

Had any of your family travelled to South America

before?

No, they hadn't. But they had travelled to India a

few years ago.
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Had you entered a No, I hadn't. It was the first

photography time. But I had worked a lot
competition before? on my photography skills
before I submitted my entry.

The past perfect uses two verbs.

The first verb is the auxiliary verb _
h _a _.
d
The second verb is the _ p_ a_s_t participle form.
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affirmative negative

James ___________
had worked as a He ___________
hadn't done much
waiter for five years before cooking before he started the
he trained to be a chef. course.

questions short answers

____
Had he _______
eaten Japanese
Yes, he had.
food before he learned to
No, he hadn't.
cook it?

TIP: When speaking, we sometimes contract

had to 'd: He'd worked as a waiter
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By the time we got to the

party, the DJ had already
finished playing his set.

We use the past perfect to talk about something

that happened before / after a specific time in the
past.
arty
ed p
i sh th
e
fi n
to
DJ g t
e go
th yin we
pla
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Complete the sentences with the past perfect or

past simple forms of the following verbs:
Finish see (not) fly eat move

1. The music ____

had finished
by the time
by the
we arrived.
time we arrived.
2. He ____
hadn't
before
flownhebefore
went to
hethe
went
UK.to the UK.
3. My friend had already read the book before she ____
saw the
the
film.
4. My parents ____
had moved
to New to
York
Newbefore
York they
before
got
they
married.
got
5. married.
I ____ never ____ sushi before I came to Japan.
5. I had never eaten sushi before I came to Japan.
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Write some sentences about your experiences.

When I was , I had already done

When I was , I hadn't yet.
When , I had just
When I first , I had never

Ask the question.

What had you done when you ?

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Grammar wrap-up

1. How do we form the past perfect?

2. When would you use the past perfect in a real-
life context?
3. The past perfect never appears in a sentence on
its own. True or false?