I came late today because I had forgotten my train ticket at home, so
I went back home and by the time I got there, it had started
raining. What a morning. If I had known it was going to rain,
I would have stayed home. Let's discuss Welcome to another Happy English podcast,
coming to you from New York City, and here's your English teacher,
Michael. All right, thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael
here from Happy English and I help people speak English better. And this is
Happy English Podcast, Episode six eighty two. Past perfect tense verb tenses can
be tricky to learn, hard to use, and a pain in the neck
to remember. The past perfect tense is no exception for today's English lesson.
Let's look at three ways we use the past perfect tense. First of all,
the past perfect tense is formed with had followed by a past participle verb.
You can say things like had eaten, had gone, had stopped,
and so on. That's the grammar pattern. Now let's talk about the usage.
We use the past perfect tense to talk about two past actions or events.
Two things happened in the past. Use the past perfect tense to mention
what came first, and then use the simple past to mention the second thing.
Let's look at an example. By the time Mark arrived at the meeting,
the team had already discussed the project. By the time Mark arrived at
the meeting, the team had already discussed the project. So there are two
events in the past. The first event was the team discussed the project.
After that happened Mark arrived at the meeting. It seems like Mark came late
to the meeting because by the time Mark arrived at the meeting, the team
had already discussed the project. We use the past perfect to introduce the first
event the team had already discussed the project, and the simple past to talk
about the second event, Mark arrived at the meeting. So altogether, by
the time Mark arrived at the meeting, the team had already discussed the project.
Here are some other examples. Linda couldn't enter the building because she had
forgotten her access card at home. When the guests arrived, the chef had
already prepared a delicious meal. By the time I left the office, the
thunderstorm had passed. We also used the past perfect tense when we express regrets
or wishes about the past. For example, I wish I had known about
the training event, I would have attended it. The sales team wish they
had prepared a better presentation for the meeting with the client. Donna felt bad
that she hadn't called her grandfather on his birthday. In a similar way,
we used the past perfect tense with if or wish when we talk about imaginary
or hypothetical situations in the past. Here are some examples. If I had
studied for the exam, I would have gotten a better grade. I really
wish I had studied. I wish she had told me she had a boyfriend.
If you had asked me for help, I would have come over.
Keep in mind, the best way to remember this grammar, and any grammar
or vocabulary is to take the word or phrase, write it in a sentence
that's true for you or true in your world, and then memorize your sentences.
Well that's it for this English lesson podcast. I think I had already
known that. By the way, if you'd like to get more practice using
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past and in the future, and each episode has exercises where you can practice
this English point with speaking and writing checked by me. To learn more or
to see some of the example sentences from this lesson, just visit my Happy
English dot com and choose podcast lesson six eighty two. Remember, learning another
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