Actions & Situations Before a Time in the Past

We use the Past Perfect (Simple) to describe a single action or repeated actions, completed before a time in the past:

• I had forgotten my wallet, so I couldn’t pay for lunch.
• She had left before I had a chance to say goodbye.
• We had never seen snow until we moved to Canada.

We often include a specific time reference, such as a clause with when or by the time:

• When I got home, my roommate had already cooked dinner.
• By the time the movie started, we had found our seats.

We also use this form to describe a situation which existed before a past event:

• At the time of her trial last year, Hinkley had been in prison for 8 months.
• When I met Emma, she had lived in London for five years.
• Before he changed careers, he had worked as a teacher for over a decade.

We use the Past Perfect Continuous to describe an ongoing situation or action which continued up to, or stopped just before a time in the past, often with before or by the time:

• By the time we reached the restaurant, we had been walking for over 30 minutes.
• Award-winning film star Grace Kelly had been acting on stage and in television for 3 years before she made her first Hollywood movie.

We often use the Continuous with for or since when we want to focus on the duration of an action (if the context is clear, the parts in brackets can be omitted):

• They had been waiting for over an hour (before the train finally arrived).
• We had been driving since early morning (when we stopped for lunch).

We don’t usually use the Past Perfect Continuous for actions and background situations still continuing at the same time as the past simple narrative. We prefer to use the Past Continuous:

• I was cooking dinner when the parcel arrived. (an ongoing situation at the time when the parcel arrived)

Completed & Ongoing Actions

The Past Perfect (Simple) often refers to a completed action, whereas the Past Perfect Continuous may refer to an action that was still ongoing at the time of the statement:

• They had been painting the house for three days. (The painting was in progress.)
• They had painted the house before the neighbors arrived. (The painting was finished.)

We don’t mention the number of times that we have done an action when we use the Past Perfect Continuous:

• Jill had only been watching TV twice that week.
• Jill had only watched TV twice that week.

Past Reasons

We often use the Past Perfect (Simple or Continuous) to describe the reason for a past action or situation:

• I couldn’t unlock the door because I had left my keys at home.
• She was exhausted because she had been studying all night.

Sequence of Past Actions

We can use the Past Perfect with the Past Simple to make a sequence of events clear. We use the Past Perfect for the earlier action and the Past Simple for the later one:

• When the company closed, it had employed over 500 people. (= Over 500 people were given jobs by the company before it closed.)

Notice the difference if both verbs are in the Past Simple:

• When the company closed, it employed over 500 people. (= At the time of the company’s closure, over 500 people worked there.)

We can use just with the Past Perfect to show that the earlier action was very recent:

• I wanted to make a call but my battery had just died.

Or we can use already to show that the action happened sooner than we expected:

• When I came into the office at 6 am, I was surprised to see that James had already been working there for some time.

‼️ We don’t usually use the Past Perfect if the sequence is obvious and the first action makes the second happen:

• I came into the room, took my shoes off and crashed onto the couch. (the sequence is obvious, and each action naturally leads to the next)

❗Compare these two sentences: 1) I felt tired because I didn’t sleep well the night before. 2) I felt tired because I hadn’t slept well the night before. The first sentence is often more natural in everyday speech because the sequence is already clear. The Past Perfect version adds a little more emphasis to the earlier cause. Both sentences are grammatically correct and perfectly acceptable.

‼️ We can use either the Past Perfect or the Past Simple with time conjunctions, e.g. after, before, as soon as, when:

• She gave me some water as soon as I came/had come.
• When I had saved/saved enough money, I bought a new car.
• She had checked/checked all the windows before she left the house.
• I went to the market after I’d picked up/picked up my kids from school.

‼️ Pay close attention to this next point, please. It is possible that the action in the Past Simple happens first! Here is the pattern: past simple, before + past perfect:

• I left university before I‘d finished the course I was taking. (The Past Perfect (had finished) refers to the action that was expected to happen first (finishing the course), but it never happened because the later event (leaving university) interrupted it.)
• She fired him before he‘d had a chance to explain his behavior. (Again, the Past Perfect (had had) highlights that the expected earlier event had not occurred before the later action.)

The two sentences above are both good examples from an advanced grammar perspective because they show a less commonly discussed use of the Past Perfect after before. In these sentences, the Past Perfect does not simply mark “the first action”; instead, it emphasizes that the earlier action was not completed or did not happen before the second event occurred. More examples like this:

• The guests left before we had finished preparing dinner.
• The company closed before it had recovered from the financial crisis.
• He apologized before I had even asked him about it.

❕These examples show that Past Perfect is about viewpoint and emphasis, not just chronological order.

Other Uses

We can use the Past Perfect with superlatives, ordinals (the first, second, last, etc.), the only, etc. + ever:

• I remember eating sushi at that Japanese restaurant 30 years ago. It was the best meal I had ever eaten.
• I told him about my legal transgression, and I don’t regret it. He was the only person I had ever trusted enough to share that information with.
• When I heard the song back in 1998, my mind was blown. It was the first time I had ever been so moved by music.

❗We use the Past Perfect with verbs such as hope, expect, want, plan, think about, wish to describe past intentions which were unfulfilled:

• I had hoped to visit Japan that year, but I couldn’t afford the trip.
• She had been planning to study abroad, but she decided to stay home.
• They had expected the project to finish by June, but it took much longer.
• We had been thinking about buying a house, but we changed our minds.
• I had wished to become a musician, but I chose a different career path.

Remember that we don’t usually use the continuous forms with state verbs:

• He had been wanting to apologize, but he never found the right moment.
• He had wanted to apologize, but he never found the right moment.