Past perfect

- The past perfect is used to show that one event happened before another one. It doesn’t matter which event is mentioned first in the sentence; the past perfect clarifies their temporal order.

Using the past perfect

First event	Second event
I had left	Before Shelly arrived at the office.
Clara had done the dishes	When I returned this morning.
I had just boarded the airplane	When my mother called me.

- Rules for conjugating past perfect:

Paste tense of have + past participle of main verb

It’s often used with specific expressions of time, like:

After, before, by the time, etc.

Verb	Affirmative	Negative (using the contraction of "not")	Interrogative
Call	Had called	Hadn’t called	Had [you] called?
Pay	Had paid	Hadn’t paid	Had [you] paid?
See	Had seen	Hadn’t seen	Had [you] seen?
Finish	Had finished	Hadn’t finished	Had [you] finished?

- Examples:

Ex	After I had called the hotel I saw you.
	The company had been sold by the time you emailed me.
	Lacy had just run a marathon when we ran into her yesterday.