1.4.8 Past perfect simple

Forms: she had (she'd) taken, he had (he'd) finished.

We use the past perfect simple when it is necessary to show that one event was earlier than another event in the past. Consider, e.g.:

It started to rain. Jane went into the house. (Va començar a ploure. La Jane va entrar a la casa.)

Jane went into the house. It started to rain. (La Jane va entrar a la casa. Va començar a ploure.)

In each case we understand that the two events happened in the same order as the two sentences.

But compare, e.g.:

Jane went into the garden. It had started to rain. (La Jane va entrar a la casa. Havia començat a ploure.)

In order to indicate that the events are not in the same order as the sentences, we use the past perfect in the second one. In this case the past perfect "replaces" the past simple.

Other examples are:

Sally got her visa last September. She had applied for it the previous year. (La Sally va rebre la seva visa el setembre passat. L'havia sol·licitat l'any anterior.)

The school had selected the new head a long time before the news appeared in the press. (El col·legi havia seleccionat el nou rector molt de temps abans que la notícia aparegués a la premsa.)

Now consider, e.g.:

Jack had already finished the letters before his boss returned. (En Jack ja havia acabat les cartes abans que el seu cap tornés.)

In this case the two events happened in the same order as in the sentence, but we use the past perfect with "already", "never", etc., corresponding to the use of these words with the present perfect.

We would express the situation at the time the boss returned as:

Jack has already finished the letters. (En Jack ja ha acabat d'escriure les cartes.)

Other examples are:

By 12 o'clock Jane had finished typing the letters. (Cap a les 12 la Jane havia acabat les cartes.)

Neil went to the opera last Saturday. He had never before heard a complete opera. (En Neil va anar a l'òpera dissabte passat. No havia sentit una òpera sencera abans.)

It was the first time that he had heard a complete opera. (Va ser la primera vegada que sentia una òpera sencera.)

With just the past perfect corresponds to acabava in Catalan, e.g.:

The post had just arrived. (El correu acabava d'arribar.)

I'd just met the new director. (Acabava de conèixer la nova directora.)

	See also past perfect continuous, reported speech and third conditional.