The document discusses the past perfect tense and how it is used to indicate that an action was completed before another past action. Specifically: 1) The past perfect expresses that one action occurred before another in the past or before a specific time in the past. 2) It is used to clarify the order of two past events when the timing is important to understand. 3) The construction of the past perfect involves using "had" plus the past participle of the main verb.

1. Past perfect
• You had studied English before you moved to
New York.
• Had you studied English before you moved to
New York?
• You had not studied English before you moved
to New York.

2. Use 1: completed action before
something in the past
• The Past Perfect expresses the idea that something
occurred before another action in the past.
• It can also show that something happened before a
specific time in the past.

3. Use 1: completed action before
something in the past
The past perfect is used to show you which of two events
happened first. Imagine that two things happened in the past:
Here, we don't know which order the events happened in. That
may be important -- perhaps I went to see the movie after the
discussion, or maybe I saw the movie before the discussion.
That is why we use the past perfect to clarify.

4. Use 1: completed action before
something in the past
Here, we KNOW that the discussion took place FIRST --
even though the sentence describing it comes
afterwards.
We discussed the movie, and THEN I went to see it.
This can be very useful when you are telling a story or
relating a sequence of events.

5. Construction of past perfect:
Affirmative
Subject Had Past participle
Arrived
I Had
Eaten
Had Arrived
You
Eaten
Arrived
He Had
Eaten
Arrived
She Had
Eaten
Arrived
It Had
Eaten
Had Arrived
We
Eaten
Had Arrived
They
Eaten

6. Construction of past perfect:
Negative
Subject Have Not Past participle
Arrived
I Had Not
Eaten
Arrived
You Had Not
Eaten
Arrived
He Had Not
Eaten
Arrived
She Had Not
Eaten
Arrived
It Had Not
Eaten
Arrived
We Had Not
Eaten
Arrived
They Had Not
Eaten

7. Construction of past perfect:
Yes/No questions
Have Subject Past participle ?
Arrived
Had I ?
Eaten
Had Arrived
You ?
Eaten
Arrived Short answers:
Had He ?
Eaten
Had She
Arrived
?
Yes, I had
Eaten No, I had not (hadn’t)
Arrived
Had It ?
Eaten Yes, he had
Had Arrived No, he had not (hadn’t)
We ?
Eaten
Had Arrived
They ?
Eaten