Nome: N.
o: Turma: Data:
Grammar worksheet 20
Past Perfect
FORM
The Past Perfect Simple is formed with the past of the auxiliary verb have + the Past Participle.
When we got to the airport the plane had already left.
Affirmative
(The plane left before we arrived.)
She hadn’t seen the car when she crossed the road.
Negative
(She crossed the road first and didn’t look.)
Had her friends tried Japanese food already?
Interrogative
(Was it not a new experience?)
USE
a The Past Perfect tense is used to indicate that one action occurred before another action in the past
(the past simple). So, the Past Perfect tense usually indicates the first of the two actions. “It is sometimes
referred to as the past before the past.”
e.g. When I woke up this morning, my brother had left already. (When my brother left I was still asleep.)
1. Complete the phrases with the past simple or the past perfect form of the verb in brackets.
In one sentence both forms are possible.
a) By the time we arrived, everyone (left).
b) I (finish) the test a long time ago.
c) By 5 am everybody at the party (be) exhausted.
d) I (eat) my dinner when my parents arrived home.
e) My Granddad was in hospital because he (break) his leg the day
before.
2. Past Simple or Past Perfect Simple. Choose the correct word
a) By the time we arrived / had arrived, everyone had left.
b) I didn’t hear / hadn’t heard of the film until you told me.
c) If I knew / had known I would have told her.
d) The film had already started / already started when we arrived.
e) I saw the newspaper and then I read / had read it.
3. Past Simple, Past Perfect Simple. Choose the correct explanation.
a) He bought the car after he’d got his new job.
1. These actions happened at the same time.
2. He got the job first.
b) It was the first time she had tried Russian food.
1. The past perfect is used because it is the first of two actions.
2. The past perfect is used because “it was the first time” comes before the past perfect.
c) I had been waiting at the station for 45 minutes when the bus arrived.
1. The speaker was still at the station when the bus arrived.
2. The speaker had left the station before the bus arrived.
Material Fotocopiável © Santillana
d) I had just got out of the shower when the postman rang the door bell.
1. The postman rang the doorbell first.
2. The speaker finished his shower first.
e) Steve had never seen a James Bond film before “Casino Royale”?
1. It was the first James Bond film Steve saw.
2. It was not the first James Bond film he had seen.
4. Read the following newspaper articles and circle the best option.
A
BOY, 4, WALKS TWO MILES TO SUPERMARKET TO PLAY WITH TOYS
A four-year-old Belgian boy sneaked out of the house and walked / was walking two miles
to his local supermarket because he wanted to play with some toys. Vincent Van den Wijngaert
ran away / was running away while his father cooked / was cooking the evening meal. When
he realised / was realising his son missed / was missing, his father searched the house and
then called the police. The police immediately sent out patrol cars and later that evening they
found little Vincent in the car park of the local supermarket.
B
SPEEDING MOTORIST WAS PLAYING THE FLUTE
German police who stopped / were stopping a motorist for speeding discovered he had
steered / steered his car with his legs while playing the flute. The 52-year-old flautist from
Salzburg in Austria told / was telling the officers that he was desperate to improve his tech-
nique and didn’t want / wasn’t wanting to waste time on the road. The motorist, who had
travelled / travelled at 80mph, said he needed / was needing to make use of the time he
spent in the car to practice his instrument.
5. Complete with the verbs in the Past Simple, Past Continuous and Past Perfect.
PIANO PROVES TRAVELLER’S FORTE
A passenger who (miss) a flight at Heathrow airport (find)
a place to stay in a luxurious hotel because he (be) a good piano player. The
traveller (stay) free for four nights in a £156-a-night room in return for entertain-
ing guests at the four-star Le Meridien Excelsior Hotel. The man, who (return)
home to New York, was unable to get on another flight because he (buy) a
non-transferable ticket. He made the unusual deal after he (go) into the hotel
to explain his situation and offered to help with the washing up. When he (tell)
the hotel he was a pianist, he was hired to play to guests in the hotel bar.
Material Fotocopiável © Santillana
