Introduction
As learners learn Past Simple Tense, they find it daunting to remember all those verbs of irregular past. After they have acquired Past Simple, they find it even more daunting to get familiar with a more advanced version of the Past Tense – the Past Perfect. Differentiating Past Simple from Past Perfect Tense could be challenging as they both carry meaning of ‘past’ but possess a different verb aspect. This blogpost is an overview of how Past Perfect can be used and how we can differ Past Perfect from Past Simple.
What does ‘Past’ mean in English?
Past Tense is a system of distancing. We use Past Tense to talk about processes far away from the speakers’ time and space. We also use Past Tense to either talk about processes distant from the reality, or distance ourselves from an individual or a group of people. To put it simple, Past Tense is an interpersonal system of creating temporal, spatial, cognitive, and social distances.
What is the aspect of Perfect?
Perfect is an aspect of relating a completed process to another subsequent process. It features the use of the verb ‘have’ plus the Past Participle. Look at the following examples:
- I have finished the assignment (Present Perfect)
- I had finished the project by 2pm yesterday. (Past Perfect)
- I will have finished the project by 2pm tomorrow. (Future Perfect)
When do we use Past Simple?
As mentioned above, Past Simple is used to create temporal, spatial, cognitive, and social distance. We use Past Simple to talk about processes which happened at a point in time, habitual actions in the past, or on-going states in the past. Look at the following examples:
- WWI occurred in 1914.
- They were my favourite toys.
- We went swimming every day when we were young.
All the processes are far away from the speakers’ now, thus using Past Simple to create temporal and spatial distance.
We also use Past Simple to create cognitive and social distances. Look at the following examples:
- If I were a millionaire, I would buy a bungalow there.
- I wondered whether you would like to come.
In the above examples, we either talk about processes distant from the reality (example 1) or emphasise politeness by creating social distances (example 2).
To use Past Simple, we either use Past Tense or need an auxiliary ‘did’ plus the Bare Infinitive Form:
- I finished the assignment. (+)
- I did finish the assignment. (+) emphatic use
- I did not finish the assignment. (-)
- Did you finish the assignment? (?)
When do we use Past Perfect?
We use Past Perfect to talk about processes which were completed before a subsequent past process, or a certain point of time in the past. Look at the following example:
- Jennifer had finished her homework by 2pm yesterday.
- Last week, Peter went to the cinema with Casey after he had finished the assignment.
In example (1), the process of ‘finishing’ happened before a point of time in the past (i.e. 2 pm yesterday), hence the use of Past Perfect.
In example (2), the process of ‘finishing’ happened before another past action of ‘going to the cinema’, thus using Past Perfect.
To use Past Perfect, we need the auxiliary ‘had’ plus the Past Participle:
- I had finished the assignment. (+)
- I had not finished the assignment. (-)
- Had you finished the assignment? (?)
How do we use Past Perfect in hypothetical contexts?
Past Tenses is a grammatical system of distancing oneself from the present reality. We usually use Past Simple to talk about processes that do not happen at present, or will not happen in the future. Look at the following examples:
- If I were a billionaire, I would quit my job at once.
- If I attended the lecture, I would learn something new.
In example (1), my being a billionaire is not realized at present, so we use Past Simple to talk about unreal situations that do not happen now. We call it Type 2 Conditional / Hypothetical Present Conditional. In example (2), the process of my attending the lecture will not be realized in the future, thus using Type 2 Conditional.
We use Past Perfect to talk about processes that did not happen in the past. Look at the following examples:
3. If I had attended the lecture yesterday, I would have learnt something new.
In the above example, the process of my attending the lecture was not realized in the past, thus using Past Perfect in the If-Clause. We call it Type 3 Conditional / Hypothetical Past Conditional. We usually use Type 3 Conditional to express regrets in the past.
Similarly, we can use Past Perfect together with ‘wish’ and ‘if only’ to express regrets in the past:
- I wish I had attended the lecture yesterday.
- If only I had attended the lecture yesterday.
How do we use Past and Past Perfect in Reported Speech?
To connect others’ ideas to our utterances, we use either a quoted clause or a reported clause. In terms of quoted clause, we tend to present others’ ideas without changing any words or sentence structures. Look at the following example:
“Jason bought a new game yesterday,” Jane said.
In this example, the clause in the quotation marks is a Quoted Clause whereas “Jane said” is a Quoting Clause. We call this way of connecting ideas in our own utterances Direct Speech.
Now if we want to present others’ ideas in our own words, we tend to use Reported Clauses. Look at the following example:
Jane said Jason had bought a new game the day before.
In the above example, “Jane said” is a Reporting Clause whereas the remaining part of the sentence is a Reported Clause. We use Past Simple for the reporting verb “said” as Jane told the message in the past. In the Reported Clause, we use Past Perfect by changing “bought” into “had bought” as we talked about a process which took place earlier than the past process, i.e. the process of saying performed by Jane. We call this Reported Speech.
Are there any signal words when using these two tenses?
For Past Simple, the signal words are usually adverbs or prepositional phrases indicating obvious distance from the speakers’ ‘now’. These include in the past, 10 years ago, yesterday. Pay attention to the use of ‘just now’, which means ‘a very short time ago’.
For Past Perfect, the signal words are usually those time sequencers, such as (just) before and after (that), until that moment, etc. We also need to pay attention to the use of ‘by’ as in ‘by the time’, which indicates an idea of ‘before’ or ‘not later than a particular time’.
Why do people confuse Past Simple with Past Perfect?
English learners may find Past Simple and Past Perfect confusing because there is no such a differentiation in their first language. They may find it challenging to understand the temporal relation between clauses in a sentence.
Bearing a Perfect Aspect, Past Perfect has an idea of completion and tends to relate the completed process to a point of time or a process in the past. Too make it simple, it is the earlier of the two past actions or ‘the past of the past’.
In order for English learners to use Past Perfect correctly, it is important to identify which one is the first process and which one goes second in a past situation. This is usually expressed by words such as before, after and when.
What are some of the common mistakes people make when using past perfect and past simple?
English learners should pay attention to all the irregular past as the spelling comes in a different form from the present. They don’t simply add the ending -ed to make the Past Tense.
For Past Perfect, the Past Participle could be problematic to many students as they need to be memorised. Similarly, there are irregular forms and need a lot of time and practice for acquisition. Some students may mix up Past Perfect and Past Simple by misusing the auxiliary ‘did’ in Past Perfect, thus making mistakes like ‘did not broken’.