![]() ![]() In the first example, you can see there’s a specific past event (turning 50) that we take as a point of reference to mention other actions that occurred prior to it. He’s worked for several international companies. He had worked for several international companies before he turned 50. So what makes the difference? The time period. What about talking about repeated past actions? Can we use both the present perfect and past perfect for this use? Actually, it’s possible. Taking the previous example, if we say: “ I hadn’t submitted the assignment yet”, the sentence would be incomplete, leaving the listener wondering what happened next. Typically, you need the past perfect, otherwise, how would you convey that some of the events occurred before others?īy the same token, it’s also rare to find a paragraph containing the past perfect alone. When you’re expressing a sequence of events, writing about the past with past simple verbs only is unusual. I hadn’t submitted the assignment yet when the teacher contacted me. However, the combination of the past simple and past perfect helps to communicate the events in the right sequential order. The time period is finished and no present is involved. You can’t use the present perfect to tell this story because it is set in a specific and definite past. Being able to use this mixture of past tenses gives a chronological order to your narrative. In your storyline, everything is in the past, but some actions happened before others. And then it turned out that they had put together the most memorable party of your life! So you start by telling your friends how disappointed you were with your family because you believed they had forgotten about your big day. Imagine you wanted to share a story about your surprise birthday party. This is what sets the present perfect apart from the past perfect, because when we use the past perfect, the time reference is the past exclusively.įor more information about the present perfect, check out this simple explanation of the present perfect we posted some time ago. In all of these cases, the timestamp extends from the past up into the present. These are some of the essential uses of the present perfect, that is to say talking about accomplishments and experiences, indefinite past actions, ongoing events, or news we would like to share. Or you want to talk about repeated actions that happened at different, yet indefinite times in your life. Say you want to share a funny anecdote or an important achievement, maybe a project you’ve started but you’re still working on. It’s time to check the present perfect and the past perfect individually. (Meaning: after ten years, I moved to London) I had lived in Italy for 10 years before moving to London. In other words, an action or actions happening before another. We use it when talking about a past action that’s finished before a certain time or before another past action. It might be because that event is unfinished, or that it may be relevant to the present time. With this, the action starts in the past but somehow extends up to the present. When we refer to past actions that happened at an indefinite time, the present perfect is the right choice. How is the past time involved in these tenses? The timelines of the present perfect and the past perfect (Meaning: the first time I played before an audience was in my audition.) ![]() When I auditioned for the music scholarship, I had never played the piano before an audience. (This means that up until now, this has been my experience.) I have never played the piano before an audience in my life. These examples will make this point clearer: And with the past perfect, we look back from a specific time in the past. But what does it mean?īy definition, the perfect aspect looks back from a specific point of time and refers to all those things that occurred up to that time or that are relevant at that time.Īs implied by their names, with the present perfect we recall the past from the present. The perfect aspect of these tenses might be the source of confusion for some learners. Of course, their differences go beyond the way they’re structured, so let’s get down to them now. Have/Has + Past Participle The past perfect: THE PAST PERFECT Present perfect and past perfect structuresīefore digging deeper into this topic, let’s quickly review the structures. ![]()
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