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G.6.5 - Past Perfect

Irregular Past Participles - Intermediate Level

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We use the past participle when using perfect tenses, but unfortunately, many verbs are irregular in this form. e.g. Ride - Rode - Ridden

Here's an exercise to help you remember the perfect tenses and to help you see how many past participles you can remember.

Can you name any other verbs that are irregular in the past participle and put them in a perfect tense sentence? Good luck!

Past Simple or Past Perfect?

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These two tenses are both used to talk about things that happened in the past. However we use past perfect to talk about something that happened before another action in the past, which is usually expressed by the past simple.

For example:

"I had already eaten my dinner when he called."
In other words, First I ate my dinner, then he called.
The past perfect is often used with already, yet, just and even.

Past Simple or Past Participle?

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When to use the simple past tense

We use the simple past tense for actions that began and finished in the past. We do not have to say exactly when. The important thing is that it happened and is not happening now.

'I saw it'

When to use the past participle

The past participle is used with the following tenses:

what is the 'past perfect simple'?

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'They had left by the time I got home.'

When do we use the ‘past perfect’?

When we talk about the past we use the past simple tense:

'He came home.'

When we want to talk about something that happened before this we use the past perfect tense: