1
00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:03,600
Speaker 1: By the time I got to the party, Jack had

2
00:00:03,879 --> 00:00:10,039
already gone home. The past perfect tense. Have you ever

3
00:00:10,119 --> 00:00:15,400
studied this grammar and thought when do people actually use this?

4
00:00:16,320 --> 00:00:20,239
Maybe you learned something like the past perfect is the

5
00:00:20,280 --> 00:00:25,399
past of the past, and technically that's true, but that

6
00:00:25,800 --> 00:00:30,640
rule is not very helpful in real conversation, because the

7
00:00:30,719 --> 00:00:37,159
truth is, Native speakers don't walk around thinking about grammar rules.

8
00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:42,399
We use certain grammar patterns because they help us explain

9
00:00:43,079 --> 00:00:48,320
time relationships in a story or conversation, and the past

10
00:00:48,399 --> 00:00:53,240
perfect is one of those patterns. So in today's podcast

11
00:00:53,399 --> 00:00:58,119
English Lesson, we're going to look at several very practical

12
00:00:58,200 --> 00:01:04,439
situations where Native speakers naturally use the past perfect in

13
00:01:04,599 --> 00:01:08,280
everyday English.

14
00:01:09,159 --> 00:01:12,879
Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast coming to you from

15
00:01:12,920 --> 00:01:17,879
New York City, and here's your English teacher, Michael Paul.

16
00:01:18,040 --> 00:01:22,599
Speaker 1: Righty, Thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael here

17
00:01:22,640 --> 00:01:26,959
from Happy English and I help people speak English better.

18
00:01:27,439 --> 00:01:33,400
And this is Happy English Podcast, Episode one thousand and three.

19
00:01:33,439 --> 00:01:38,680
Practical uses of the past perfect in Everyday English. So

20
00:01:38,840 --> 00:01:43,000
first let's take a look at the grammar pattern. The

21
00:01:43,079 --> 00:01:48,879
past perfect tense is had plus the past participle. And

22
00:01:48,959 --> 00:01:52,959
before you freak out too much. The past participle is

23
00:01:53,040 --> 00:01:58,680
the third form of the verb like go, went, gone,

24
00:01:58,719 --> 00:02:04,959
gone is the past participle, or eat ate eaten or

25
00:02:05,840 --> 00:02:15,639
see saw scene or finish finished, finished, gone, eaten scene finished.

26
00:02:16,240 --> 00:02:20,840
Those are all the past participles, and they follow the

27
00:02:21,000 --> 00:02:26,479
verb had like this, I had finished, she had left,

28
00:02:27,199 --> 00:02:32,639
they had already eaten. Check this out. Yesterday the weather

29
00:02:32,759 --> 00:02:37,400
forecast said that it was going to snow overnight. Well,

30
00:02:37,960 --> 00:02:41,280
when I woke up this morning, I opened the curtains,

31
00:02:41,520 --> 00:02:45,919
and sure enough, the snow had fallen and the sky

32
00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:51,000
had already cleared up. Four things happened in the past

33
00:02:51,080 --> 00:02:56,080
in that sentence. I woke up, I opened the curtains,

34
00:02:56,759 --> 00:03:01,039
the snow had fallen, and the sky had cleared up.

35
00:03:02,159 --> 00:03:07,240
Listen again and think about what came. First, I woke up,

36
00:03:07,960 --> 00:03:12,199
I opened the curtains, The snow had fallen, the sky

37
00:03:12,439 --> 00:03:17,520
had cleared up. Got it. The snow had fallen, then

38
00:03:17,800 --> 00:03:22,120
the sky had cleared up. Then I woke up and

39
00:03:22,439 --> 00:03:27,319
opened the curtains. So first it snowed, then the sky

40
00:03:27,479 --> 00:03:31,400
cleared up. Then I woke up, and then I opened

41
00:03:31,400 --> 00:03:36,439
the curtains. We used the past perfect tense when we

42
00:03:36,520 --> 00:03:42,120
need to show what had already happened before another moment

43
00:03:42,280 --> 00:03:46,599
in the past, and once you understand that idea, the

44
00:03:46,639 --> 00:03:51,400
past perfect becomes much easier to use. When I woke

45
00:03:51,520 --> 00:03:55,080
up this morning, I opened the curtains, and sure enough,

46
00:03:55,879 --> 00:04:00,960
the snow had fallen and the sky had already cleared up.

47
00:04:01,560 --> 00:04:04,639
I know that sounds a little bit like a line

48
00:04:04,719 --> 00:04:10,080
from a novel. So let's look at some everyday situations

49
00:04:10,159 --> 00:04:15,120
that we use this grammar in English conversation. First, we

50
00:04:15,280 --> 00:04:19,680
often use the past perfect when explaining the reason for

51
00:04:19,839 --> 00:04:24,879
something that happened. Imagine you show up at work looking exhausted,

52
00:04:25,439 --> 00:04:30,040
and your coworker asks, oh, are you okay? You look tired.

53
00:04:30,879 --> 00:04:34,720
You might say, yeah, I'm tired because I had stayed

54
00:04:34,839 --> 00:04:38,680
up too late last night. Or maybe you missed your

55
00:04:38,680 --> 00:04:43,399
train and someone asks what happened? You could say, I

56
00:04:43,480 --> 00:04:47,319
missed the train because I had left the house too late.

57
00:04:48,480 --> 00:04:54,279
In situations like this, the past perfect explains the earlier

58
00:04:54,480 --> 00:04:57,600
cause of a past event, and you'll often hear this

59
00:04:57,720 --> 00:05:05,360
pattern past event because past perfect reason Like Jack was

60
00:05:05,399 --> 00:05:09,800
stressed out this morning because he had forgotten about his

61
00:05:09,959 --> 00:05:15,680
wife's birthday. That's very natural English. Another common use of

62
00:05:15,720 --> 00:05:18,959
the past perfect is when we're telling a story and

63
00:05:19,040 --> 00:05:24,399
giving background information. Imagine you're telling a story about running

64
00:05:24,439 --> 00:05:27,800
into an old friend. You could say something like this,

65
00:05:28,800 --> 00:05:32,879
I bumped into one of my college friends yesterday when

66
00:05:32,959 --> 00:05:36,639
we were talking at the train station. We realized we

67
00:05:36,879 --> 00:05:41,680
hadn't seen each other in almost ten years. Or maybe

68
00:05:42,079 --> 00:05:45,360
you're telling a story about trying a new restaurant. You

69
00:05:45,439 --> 00:05:49,959
might say something like, when the food arrived, I realized

70
00:05:50,079 --> 00:05:53,759
I had forgotten to mention that I don't like celery.

71
00:05:54,480 --> 00:05:58,079
Forgetting to mention that you don't like Celery happened before

72
00:05:58,160 --> 00:06:01,519
the food arrived. Right. This is a great place for

73
00:06:01,560 --> 00:06:05,279
the past perfect tense, and this happens all the time

74
00:06:05,560 --> 00:06:10,920
when people tell stories. Another very common situation is when

75
00:06:10,959 --> 00:06:15,399
we want to say that something happened before another moment

76
00:06:15,560 --> 00:06:18,959
in the past, and you'll often hear the past perfect

77
00:06:19,319 --> 00:06:25,120
with expressions like when, by the time and after, like

78
00:06:25,879 --> 00:06:28,560
I left the office late, and when I got to

79
00:06:28,639 --> 00:06:34,399
the station the train had already left. Or by the

80
00:06:34,480 --> 00:06:39,040
time we got to the restaurant, they had closed, or

81
00:06:39,879 --> 00:06:44,439
after I got home, I realized I had left my

82
00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:50,560
wallet at the restaurant. This grammar helps make the timeline clear.

83
00:06:51,120 --> 00:06:55,319
We also use the past perfect when talking about experience

84
00:06:55,519 --> 00:06:59,639
before a certain time in the past, like before I

85
00:06:59,759 --> 00:07:03,920
moved moved to Japan, I had never tried ramen, Or

86
00:07:04,199 --> 00:07:07,279
when Nick was telling me about his trip to Italy,

87
00:07:07,759 --> 00:07:11,000
he said that at that point in his life he

88
00:07:11,160 --> 00:07:15,680
had never traveled outside the country. This is common when

89
00:07:15,720 --> 00:07:22,000
people talk about life experiences or big changes. Here's another

90
00:07:22,120 --> 00:07:27,480
very natural situation when we realized something too late, Like

91
00:07:27,839 --> 00:07:31,160
I called one of my friends and when a woman answered,

92
00:07:32,079 --> 00:07:36,199
I realized I had dialed the wrong number, or like this,

93
00:07:37,160 --> 00:07:42,040
what a disaster my last vacation was. I booked the hotel,

94
00:07:42,519 --> 00:07:45,920
but then I realized I had chosen the wrong date.

95
00:07:47,560 --> 00:07:52,079
Notice what's happening here. First, something happens, and then you

96
00:07:52,240 --> 00:07:58,920
suddenly realized something had already gone wrong earlier. That's another

97
00:07:59,199 --> 00:08:04,519
natural mode for the past perfect. And finally, we use

98
00:08:04,639 --> 00:08:10,480
the past perfect when talking about regret or reflection, and

99
00:08:10,560 --> 00:08:15,800
this often happens with wish or if like I wish

100
00:08:15,839 --> 00:08:20,560
I had studied harder in college, or if I had

101
00:08:20,680 --> 00:08:24,399
known she was a vegetarian, I wouldn't have taken her

102
00:08:24,439 --> 00:08:29,639
to a steakhouse for dinner. This structure often appears when

103
00:08:29,759 --> 00:08:36,960
people talk about mistakes, regrets, or the lessons they learned. Okay,

104
00:08:37,399 --> 00:08:42,879
let's recap. In everyday English, Native speakers usually use the

105
00:08:43,000 --> 00:08:48,480
past perfect for three main reasons. First, to explain the

106
00:08:48,639 --> 00:08:53,039
reason for something that happened in the past, like I

107
00:08:53,240 --> 00:08:56,799
was really tired this morning because I had stayed up

108
00:08:56,919 --> 00:09:02,799
too late last night. Second, to give background information to

109
00:09:02,919 --> 00:09:06,240
a story. When I saw her at the train station,

110
00:09:06,759 --> 00:09:11,799
I realized I hadn't seen her in almost ten years.

111
00:09:11,840 --> 00:09:16,720
And Third, to show that something had already happened before

112
00:09:16,840 --> 00:09:21,080
another moment in the past, like after I got home,

113
00:09:21,639 --> 00:09:25,320
I realized I had left my phone at the restaurant.

114
00:09:25,919 --> 00:09:30,960
That's it. It's not about complicated grammar rules. It's about

115
00:09:31,000 --> 00:09:36,240
helping the listener understand the timeline of events. And here's

116
00:09:36,279 --> 00:09:42,200
something really important to remember. Native speakers don't always use

117
00:09:42,240 --> 00:09:48,519
the past perfect perfectly in casual conversation. We often simplify

118
00:09:48,720 --> 00:09:53,080
things and just use the simple past, like when I

119
00:09:53,159 --> 00:09:58,000
got home, I realized I left my phone at the restaurant.

120
00:09:58,759 --> 00:10:03,159
But when and the order of events matters, the past

121
00:10:03,360 --> 00:10:09,200
perfect becomes very useful, like when I arrived, I realized

122
00:10:09,240 --> 00:10:13,960
I had forgotten my keys. So here's your challenge. The

123
00:10:14,039 --> 00:10:17,879
next time you're telling a story in English, try adding

124
00:10:17,960 --> 00:10:23,600
one sentence using the past. Perfect That small change makes

125
00:10:23,639 --> 00:10:28,159
your story clearer and more natural. And keep in mind

126
00:10:28,840 --> 00:10:31,679
the best way to remember English like this and any

127
00:10:31,720 --> 00:10:34,679
other word or phrase in English, is to take that

128
00:10:34,799 --> 00:10:38,960
word or phrase, write it in a sentence that's true

129
00:10:39,039 --> 00:10:42,879
for you or true in your world, and then memorize

130
00:10:42,960 --> 00:10:48,240
your sentences. Hey, thanks for listening, and remember learning another

131
00:10:48,360 --> 00:10:52,080
language is not easy, but it's not impossible, and I'm

132
00:10:52,080 --> 00:10:55,720
here to help you on your journey.

133
00:10:56,960 --> 00:11:00,399
Speaker 2: This podcast is brought to you by Happy English. Visit

134
00:11:00,759 --> 00:11:05,080
Myhappy English dot com show your support for Happy English

135
00:11:05,120 --> 00:11:09,000
by leaving us a review. Get English, Get Happy, Happy

136
00:11:09,120 --> 00:11:22,039
English