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PAST PERFECT TENSE | English grammar lesson and exercise
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PAST PERFECT TENSE | English grammar lesson and exercise

Understanding the Past Perfect Tense

Introduction to Past Perfect Tense

  • Andrew introduces the lesson on the past perfect tense, using an example involving Mark who was tired because he had walked to work.
  • The past perfect tense is explained as a way to describe two actions in the past, emphasizing that one action precedes another.

Structure of Past Perfect Tense

  • The structure of the past perfect is outlined: subject + had + past participle (e.g., "he had walked").
  • Contracted forms are introduced for spoken English, such as "I'd walked" instead of "I had walked."

Negative and Question Forms

  • The negative form is constructed by adding "not" after "had," e.g., "he had not walked."
  • Question forms are created by reversing the order of the subject and "had," e.g., "Had she walked?"

Regular and Irregular Verbs

  • A brief overview of forming past participles for regular verbs (adding -ed), while noting irregular verbs require memorization.
  • Examples of common irregular verbs' past participles are provided, highlighting their unique forms.

Uses of Past Perfect Tense

Actions Before Other Actions

  • The primary use of the past perfect is to indicate an action completed before another action in the past, illustrated with examples like studying before passing an exam.

Reported Speech

  • Explanation of reported speech (indirect speech), where tenses change if the reporting verb is in the past. For instance, “I like chocolate” becomes “he liked chocolate.”

Conditional Statements

  • The past perfect is used in conditional sentences to express unreal situations in the past. Examples include hypothetical scenarios about walking or having more money.

Practice Exercise on Past Perfect Tense

Exercise Overview

  • An exercise prompts learners to convert verbs into their correct past perfect forms based on given sentences.

Example Answers

  • Correct answers demonstrate understanding: “My parents had cleaned,” “somebody had stolen,” and proper placement of adverbs within sentences.

Conclusion and Further Learning Resources

Wrap-Up

  • Andrew concludes by encouraging viewers to subscribe for more lessons and provides links to additional resources available through his platform.
Video description

This is an English lesson about the past perfect tense. The video starts with an example of when to use the verb tense. You will then learn the form, in particular, the affirmative, negative and question forms with the appropriate contracted forms. The affirmative form of the past perfect is made up of the subject + had + the main verb in the past participle form. "had" is the past form of the verb "have" being used as an auxiliary verb. We then look at all the common uses and meaning of the verb tense. The three main uses of the past perfect tense are: 1)To describe the first action or event in a series of actions or events from the past, 2)In reported speech when the reporting verb is in the past and the direct speech tense would be the past simple or the present perfect. Example: He said that he had liked the film. 3)In past unreal conditionals to describe an unreal situation from the past. Example: "If he had come to the party, I would have been pleased." At the end of the English grammar lesson, there is an exercise for you to complete. The accent in the video is a British English accent. Here are some other videos about English verb tenses: Past simple: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Ri3QTT41f8 Past continuous: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGwh9BvpE0o More grammar lessons: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6BDo90oiwpS4_AM1c0s0ozpROeE2A9ff Listening exercises: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6BDo90oiwpRdmnAzmYwdc0Az0ZOG2XNA Vocabulary videos: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6BDo90oiwpTlYAYSitjwWn29BEdCBi9j Andrew, Crown Academy of English Private English lessons & speaking practice: http://goo.gl/gOIaox http://www.crownacademyenglish.com http://www.youtube.com/user/CrownAcademyEnglish https://twitter.com/Crown_English Photo credits: "Smiling Young Man With Thumbs Up Gesture" Image courtesy of stockimages | FreeDigitalPhotos.net "Business Man Sleeping With Laptop" Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici | FreeDigitalPhotos.net "Walking Business Man" Image courtesy of stockimages | FreeDigitalPhotos.net "Excited Businessman Shouting And Rejoicing" Image courtesy of stockimages | FreeDigitalPhotos.net "Tourist Dragging Her Trolley Bag" Image courtesy of stockimages | FreeDigitalPhotos.net "Suffering In Pain" Image courtesy of marin | FreeDigitalPhotos.net "Yipee I Lost Few Kgs. Successful Workout" Image courtesy of stockimages | FreeDigitalPhotos.net "Happy Tourist Woman" Image courtesy of photostock | FreeDigitalPhotos.net "Student And Bunch Of Books" Image courtesy of marin | FreeDigitalPhotos.net "Teacher Instructing Student And Helping Her" Image courtesy of stockimages | FreeDigitalPhotos.net "African Male Showing Thumbs Up" Image courtesy of stockimages | FreeDigitalPhotos.net "Woman Waiting For A Train" Image courtesy of Andy Newson | FreeDigitalPhotos.net "Its Time For Meeting !" Image courtesy of stockimages | FreeDigitalPhotos.net "Multi-ethnic Team Toasting" Image courtesy of Ambro | FreeDigitalPhotos.net "Teenager Girl With Opened Notebook" Image courtesy of imagerymajestic | FreeDigitalPhotos.net "Young Girl Screaming Loud While Holding Her Head" Image courtesy of stockimages | FreeDigitalPhotos.net