Past Perfect
Use the right form of the verbs in brackets
1. Comment on the use of the Past Perfect in
the following sentences
1. The policeman asked if there had been any
witnesses.
2. By the time we got to the shopping centre it
had closed.
4. The students had written the test and were
then checking them up.
5. She complained that she was penniless as
she had spent all her money.
6. It turned out that Dick was ill and he had
been ill for a fortnight.
7. Hardly had I turned on the television, when
I heard shocking news.
8. By next morning, the snow that had begun in
the night had turned into a blizzard so thick
that the last class of the term was cancelled.
9. She had a stock of excuses, as usual, when in
fact she had overslept as usual.
10. We learnt that they had been close friends
for many years.
3. Each sentence has one
mistake. Write the correct
sentences.
1 He won lots of awards by the
time he was 16.
2 I’m sorry, I tried to phone
but you already left.
3 By the time he was 14 he had
already wrote his first book.
4 He had knew where to go
because he had been there
before.
5 She became famous she had
made her first invention.
2. Use the right form of the verbs in
brackets – Past Simple or Past Perfect
1. She (talk) about the party she
(arrange) for the children who (attend)
her Sunday-school classes.
2. Jack and Amelia were the only family
she ever (have).
3. She got dressed in the cotton shorts
and top she (wear) the day before.
4. Mari glanced over at the clock. It (be)
nearly nine. She recently (learn) to tell
the time.
5. It was lovely to hear her laugh again.
He not (hear) her laugh in years.
6. The prisoner (spend) almost a month
digging a tunnel before the guards
(discover) it.
7. He said he (be) awfully sorry for the
things he (do).
8. She seated herself in the chair Bill
(pull) out for her.
9. Roger guessed that she just (make) a
dreadful slip of the tongue.
10. Before the mid-nineteenth century,
no dentist (use) anesthesia.
4. Choose the right variant
1 The storm destroyed the
sandcastle that we built/ had
built.
2 She didn’t ride/ hadn’t ridden
a horse before that day.
3 After she had given/ gave
the note to the front desk, her
son led her outside.
4 She sat staring at the page
she had written/ wrote last
night in New York.
5 It was /had been a long time
since I had seen/ saw him in
such a difficult mood.
5. Which of the following
things have you done by your
sixteenth birthday? Use the
Past Perfect tense to answer.
Model:
By
my
sixteenth
birthday, I had smoked
cigarettes and decided that I
was never going to smoke again.
learn to drive
go on my first date
study physics
fall in love
have my first kiss
learn how to support myself
live apart from my parents
learn to speak another language