Use the Past Perfect for something that happened before another moment in the past: When we arrived, the film had started. It makes the order of events clear. Form: had + past participle.
When we arrived, the film had already started.
Two points in the past: the dashed line is the moment you're talking about, and the arc shows something that was already done by then.
| Positive | I'd finished. · She'd left. |
|---|---|
| Negative | I hadn't finished. · She hadn't left. |
| Question | Had you finished? · Had she left? |
I'd can mean I had or I would. Look at the next verb: I'd finished (had), I'd finish (would).
When I got to the station, the train had left.
The train left first; then I got there. Without had, it would mean I saw it leave.
She said she had seen the film.
The seeing happened before she said it.
If I had known, I would have come.
An imagined change to the past. The if-part takes the Past Perfect, never would have.
Words that often go with this tense. They're hints, not rules.
By the time we got there, the shop _____.
Other past tenses: Past Simple, Past Continuous, Past Perfect Continuous.
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No. When before, after or the order of the sentence already makes the sequence clear, the Past Simple is fine: After she ate, she went for a walk. Use the Past Perfect when the order would otherwise be unclear.
Yes. It's the Past Perfect of have: I had had breakfast, so I wasn't hungry.
Yes, in the third conditional, for an imagined past: If I had known, I would have come.