Past Perfect Tense

Past perfect tense indicates an action that preceded another action in the past.

• The building had burned completely by the time the fire department arrived.
• I had visited London several times before I decided to move there.

Past perfect tense is often used in narratives, with said.

• She said that she had talked to you last night.
• We told Mr. James that you had washed his car.

The pattern for forming past perfect tense is as follows:

• Had + past participle

For regular English verbs, the past participle is the same as the simple past tense form (ending in –ed). However, many irregular past tense verbs exist in English. Some have identical forms for simple past tense and past participle, but others do not. If in doubt as to the past tense forms of a particular verb, consult a dictionary. A table of some common irregular past tense verbs follows.

Common irregular past tense verbs

Base Form	Simple Past	Past Participle
be (irregular present: I am, he/she/it is, you/we/they are)	I/he/she/it was, you/we/they were	been
beat	beat	beaten
become	became	become
begin	began	begun
bend	bent	bent
bite	bit	bitten
bleed	bled	bled
blow	blew	blown
break	broke	broken
bring	brought	brought
build	built	built
buy	bought	bought
come	came	come
catch	caught	caught
choose	chose	chosen
dig	dug	dug
dive	dove or dived	dived
do	did	done
draw	drew	drawn
drink	drank	drunk
drive	drove	driven
eat	ate	eaten
fall	fell	fallen
feed	fed	fed
feel	felt	felt
find	found	found
fly	flew	flown
forbid	forbade	forbidden
freeze	froze	frozen
get	got	gotten
give	gave	given
go	went	gone
grow	grew	grown
hang	hung	hung
have	had	had
keep	kept	kept
know	knew	known
lay	laid	laid
lead	led	led
lie	lay	lain
leave	left	left
lose	lost	lost
make	made	made
mean	meant	meant
meet	met	met
pay	paid	paid
prove	proved	proven or proved
read (pronounced “reed”)	read (pronounced “red”)	read (pronounced “red”)
ride	rode	ridden
rise	rose	risen
run	ran	run
say	said	said
see	saw	seen
sell	sold	sold
send	sent	sent
shake	shook	shaken
shoot	shot	shot
show	showed	shown or showed
shrink	shrank	shrunk
sing	sang	sung
sit	sat	sat
sleep	slept	slept
speak	spoke	spoken
spend	spent	spent
spring	sprang	sprung
stand	stood	stood
steal	stole	stolen
stink	stank	stunk
strike	struck	struck
swear	swore	sworn
sweep	swept	swept
swim	swam	swum
swing	swung	swung
teach	taught	taught
take	took	taken
tear	tore	torn
tell	told	told
think	thought	thought
throw	threw	thrown
wear	wore	worn
win	won	won
write	wrote	written

A few verbs do not change form or pronunciation for simple past or past participle. Common examples are:

bet	put	cost	quit	cut
set	hit	shut	hurt	spread
let

To form the negative, place not between had and the past participle. To form a question, move had to the beginning of sentence, before the subject.

• She had taken a wrong turn.
• Had she taken a wrong turn?
• She had not taken a wrong turn.

Past perfect tense is often accompanied by yet, never, and already. These words go between had and the past participle:

• She knew that she had already taken a wrong turn.