Past Perfect Tense
Past perfect tense, İngilizce geçmiş zamanın hikayesidir.
Geçmiş zamanın hikayesini ifade etmek için kullanılır.
Bir işin geçmişte bir tarihten daha önce yapılmış olduğunu anlatmak için cümle Past perfect tense ile kurulur.
Past perfect tense cümleleri Türkçe’de geçmiş zamanın hikayesi olarak adlandırılır.
Bu tense ile kurulan cümlelerde yapılan iş belirtilen tarihe kadar mutlaka tamamlanması gerekir.
When I arrived at the cinema, the film had started.
Sinemaya geldiğimde film başlamıştı.
He hadn't used email before, so I showed him how to use it.
Daha önce email kullanmamıştı, bu yüzden nasıl kullanıldığını ona gösterdim.
I hadn't had breakfast when he arrived.
Geldiğinde kahvaltı yapmamıştım.
Functions of the past perfect
The past perfect refers to a time earlier than before now. It is used to make it clear that one event happened before another in the past. It does not matter which event is mentioned first - the tense makes it clear which one happened first.
In these examples, Event A is the event that happened first and Event B is the second or more recent event:
| Event A | Event B |
| John had gone out | when I arrived in the office. |
| Event A | Event B |
| I had saved my document | before the computer crashed. |
| Event B | Event A |
| When they arrived | we had already started cooking. |
| Event B | Event A |
| He was very tired | because he hadn't slept well. |
Forming the past perfect
The Past Perfect tense in English is composed of two parts: the past tense of the verb to have (had) + the past participle of the main verb.
| Subject | had | past participle |
|---|---|---|
| Affirmative | ||
| She | had | given |
| Negative | ||
| She | hadn't | asked. |
| Interrogative | ||
| Had | they | arrived? |
| Interrogative Negative | ||
| Hadn't | you | finished? |
To decide, past perfect
| Affirmative | Negative | Interrogative |
|---|---|---|
| I had decided | I hadn't decided | Had I decided? |
| You had decided | You hadn't decided | Had you decided? |
| She had decided | She hadn't decided | Had she decided? |
| We had decided | We hadn't decided | Had we decided? |
| They had decided | They hadn't decided | Had they decided? |
Past perfect + just
'Just' is used with the past perfect to refer to an event that was only a short time earlier than before now, e.g.
- The train had just left when I arrived at the station.
- She had just left the room when the police arrived.
- I had just put the washing out when it started to rain.
