Lesson #5 – Feb.

13th, 2020

1. Past Perfect Tense

The past perfect is a verb tense used to talk about actions that were completed before
some point in the past.

The past perfect is used to express:

 completed action before another  reported speech
begins (both in past)
The official asked if we had
After we had purchased tickets, we purchased tickets.
were able to enter the venue.
 show dissatisfaction with the
 conditional statements past
If had purchased tickets, we would We wished we had purchased
have been able to enter the venue. tickets.
What is it Used For?
1. For actions completed before another begins (both in past):

 I had never flown in an airplane before I went to London.

 After she had joined college, she became a police officer.

2. For actions expressing conditional statements:

 If I had listened during class, I would have passed the test.
 If you had understood me, you would not be asking questions.
 If we had called ahead, we would not have waited.
3. For reported speech:
 The boss had said it would be a long day.
 The child had wondered how many stars were in the sky.
 The student had asked another question.
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4. For showing dissatisfaction with the past:

 I wished I had returned the item.

 He wished he had ordered a different meal.
 We wished we had brought our dog on vacation.

When Not to Use the Past Perfect

Don’t use the past perfect when you’re not trying to convey some sequence of events.
If your friends asked what you did after you discovered the graffiti, they would be
confused if you said:
I had cleaned it off the door.
They’d likely be wondering what happened next because using the past perfect
implies that your action of cleaning the door occurred before something else
happened, but you don’t say what that something else is. The “something else” doesn’t
always have to be explicitly mentioned, but context needs to make it clear. In this case
there’s no context, so the past perfect doesn’t make sense.

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 The words when, and before are used to separate the two events. The question
starts with a wh- question word.

Wh- question word + past tense of verb to have + subject + Past Participle verb + rest of sentence?

Who had I listened to when I was in high school?

What had he brought before the principal arrived?

Where had she taken the dogs when her parents called?

When had they drank the orange juice when I was at the mall?

Why had we said the answers before the questions were asked?

How had you been so mean when she was so nice to you?

Keywords to indicate the presence of Past Perfect Tense :

 When
 After
 Before
 By the time
 As soon as
How to use the keywords
As soon as Had + PP , Past Simple
after

 After I had finished work, I watched TV

 As soon as I had eaten my breakfast, I went to school
 As soon as the thief had escaped, the police arrived.
Before Past simple, Had + PP
By the time
When

 Before I watched TV, I had finished my work.

 By the time I went to school, I had eaten my breakfast.
 By the time the police arrived, the thief had escaped.
 The train left at 9am. We arrived at 9.15am. When we arrived, the train had
left.

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 2. Compound sentences

What is a compound sentence?

 A big sentence
 Two sentences combined together with glue.
 Two sentences combined with a coordinating conjunction
 For
 And
 Nor
 But
 Or
 Yet
 So
A compound sentence contains two simple sentences
1. A compound subjects does not mean a compound sentence.
 Michael and Brooke are in the room.
2. A compound predicates does not mean a compound sentence.
 They are dancing and singing.
3. There must be two simple sentences (independent clauses that can stand
alone) joined together by a comma ( , ) .
 They are not dating, yet they do like each other.

Example of combine two sentences

 She loves to eat cassava.
 I love to eat broccoli.
 She loves to eat cassava, but I love to eat broccoli.
 She loves to eat cassava, and I love to eat broccoli.