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. (Comenzó a llover. Jane entró en la casa.)

Jane went into the house. It started to rain. (Jane entró en la casa. Comenzó a llover.)

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 house. It had started to rain. (Jane entró en la casa. Había comenzado a llover.)

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. (Sally recibió su visa en el septiembre pasado. La había solicitado el año anterior.)

The school had selected the new head a long time before the news appeared in the press. (El colegio había seleccionado al nuevo rector mucho antes de que la noticia apareciera en la prensa.)

Now consider, e.g.:

Jack had already finished the letters before his boss returned. (Jack ya había acabado las cartas antes de que su jefe volviera.)

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. (Jack ya ha acabado las cartas.)

Other examples are:

By 12 o'clock Jane had finished typing the letters. (A las 12 Jane había acabado de escribir las cartas.)

Neil went to the opera last Saturday. He had never before heard a complete opera. (Neil fue a la ópera el sábado pasado. No había oído nunca una ópera entera.)

It was the first time that he had heard a complete opera. (Fue la primera vez que oía una ópera entera.)

With just the past perfect corresponds to acababa in Spanish, e.g.:

The post had just arrived. (El correo acababa de llegar.)

I'd just met the new director. (Acababa de conocer a la nueva directora.)

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