This tense is formed as:
had + past participle.
Past participle is a verb which ends in -ed (closed, opened, etc.) or an irregular verb in the 3rd form (done, written, etc.).
I/we/they/you/he/she/it had (=I’d, we’d, they’d, you’d)
Questions are formed as:
Had + subject+ past participle ?
Short answers are formed as:
Yes, he/she/it/we/you/they had. No, he/she/it/we/you/they hadn’t.
The Past Perfect is similar to the Present Perfect and is used for:
1) a past action which occurred before a specific time in the past.
He had left by the time I got there. [1, p.13]
“Before he left South Africa on his long journey to England, his Aunt Lucy, who was a very wise old bear, had done her best to teach him all she knew. She had told him all about the places he would see on the way and she had spent many long hours reading to him about the people he would meet.” [2, p.30]
2) a complete past action with a visible result in the past.
She was sad because she had failed the test. [1, p.13]
“Late one evening Drummerboy was on his way to a new home. Tom and Madge Summers had just bought him for their riding stables at Applegate.” [3, p.122]
Sources:
- Evans, V. and Doodley, J. (2011). New Round-Up 5. Pearson Education Limited.
- Bond, M. (1992). A Bear Called Paddington. HarperCollinsPublishers.
- Story Teller Part 5. (1983). Marshall Cavendish Limited, pp.122-126.