Past Perfect 💃 What Had Happened? | Miguel Story #LearnEnglish #A2English

Miguel is in the past. But sometimes we need to go even further back. 😄 Past Perfect helps us show which past action happened first: HAD + -ED for regular verbs, or HAD + the third form for irregular verbs. DESCRIPTION What had happened before she finally left Miguel? That is exactly what Past Perfect helps us show. Imagine that we are already telling a story in the past: I opened the fridge. But something had happened before I opened it: Miguel had drunk my orange juice. Two actions are in the past — but they are not equal in time. Miguel drank the juice. I opened the fridge. The earlier action gets Past Perfect: Miguel had drunk my orange juice before I opened the fridge. So Past Perfect is a very useful navigation tool inside a past story. It tells the listener: This happened earlier. HOW DO WE BUILD PAST PERFECT? There are two possibilities. REGULAR VERB HAD + VERB-ED work → had worked call → had called finish → had finished pack → had packed Examples: I had worked. She had called. We had finished. They had packed. IRREGULAR VERB HAD + THIRD FORM For irregular verbs, we use their special third form: drink – drank – drunk → had drunk eat – ate – eaten → had eaten see – saw – seen → had seen do – did – done → had done write – wrote – written → had written go – went – gone → had gone So: He had eaten my chocolate. She had seen the message. They had gone home. And the good news? HAD is the same for everybody. I had worked. You had worked. He had worked. She had worked. We had worked. They had worked. No changing the auxiliary. Nice and easy. AND WHAT ABOUT THE INFORMATION LINE? This is where we need the verb to be. But to be is irregular: be – was/were – been So we use its third form: HAD + BEEN I had been happy. He had been jealous. She had been tired. They had been together. Why been? Not because Past Perfect has some mysterious special rule. Simply because to be is an irregular verb, and its third form is been. So our two patterns are: ACTION — regular verb had + verb-ed She had called. ACTION — irregular verb had + third form He had drunk the juice. INFORMATION — TO BE had + been + information He had been jealous. She had been happy. PAST SIMPLE vs PAST PERFECT Past Simple usually moves our story forward: I walked into the kitchen. I opened the fridge. I looked inside. But Past Perfect lets us jump backwards and explain what had already happened: Miguel had eaten my chocolate. He had drunk my juice. So: Past Simple → what happened next in the story. Past Perfect → what had happened before that past moment. Another example: When I arrived, my friends had already left. First: They left. Later: I arrived. The earlier event gets Past Perfect. And by the time our heroine finally left Miguel… she had heard enough, she had cried enough, she had packed her suitcase, and Miguel had eaten the chocolate. Honestly, the chocolate may have been the final straw. 😄 Subscribe to Mike’s EN Light Academy and turn on the notification bell for more English through music, stories, humour and unnecessarily dramatic grammar. Sing Your English. #PastPerfect #LearnEnglish #EnglishGrammar #A2English #B1English #EnglishThroughMusic #LearnEnglishWithSongs #EnglishTenses #SingYourEnglish