THE PAST PERFECT AND THE PAST
PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE-FORMS
A. The Past Perfect Tense
FORMATION
The Past Perfect Tense is formed with the auxiliary had and the Past Participle of the main verb.
Table 8
| Affirmative | Negative | Interrogative | ||||||
| I YOU | worked broken | I you | worked broken | I you | worked? broken? | |||
| he she it | had | he she it | had not | had | he she it | |||
| we you they | we you they | we you they | ||||||
Contractions
'd = had; hadn't = had not
USAGE
The Past Perfect tense denotes a past event (action or state) that happened before another past event. In other words, the Past Perfect Tense is used to denote an action in the distant past which is contrasted to another action which is less far away in the past. This priority of one past action can be indicated by an adverbial phrase with the preposition 'by' or by a clause with the conjunctions before, no sooner ... than, hardly ... when, scarcely ... when. It may also become clear from the logical relations between the clauses or sentences in a context.
The letter had arrived by the end of the week.
By March the snow hadn’t melted yet.
Had they left before the trouble started?
They hadn't yet started eating by the time I arrived at the party.
Hardly had we put up a tent when it started to rain.
(or We had hardly put up a tent when it started to rain.)
No sooner had he arrived than he was told to start back again.
I could see from his face that he had received bad news.
I hadn't eaten all day so I was very hungry when I got home.
I couldn't get into the car. The boys had hidden the car keys.
Note that when there is a simple succession of past actions (without their being contrasted in time) the Past Simple tense is used for each event.
I got to the stadium at 7.15 and the game started at 7.30.
She thanked him for his hospitality. They shook hands and he wished her a pleasant journey.
The Past Perfect Tense is commonly used in Reported (Indirect) Speech after the reporting verbs such as say, tell, ask, explain, wonder, etc. in the Past Simple.
She wondered who had left the door open. She said she had bought a lovely pair of shoes.
When Direct Speech is transformed into Reported Speech the adverbials of 'absolute past' are replaced by 'relative' indications of time: 'yesterday' is replaced by 'the day before', or 'the previous day', 'ago' by 'before', 'last night' by 'the previous night'.
|
|
|
I asked if the Browns had left the day before. We knew David had left school two years before.
Notice that the Past Perfect in Reported Speech is the result of changing two tense-forms in Direct Speech: the Past Simple and the Present Perfect.
| Direct Speech | Indirect Speech |
| 1. Ann said to me: «Graham has lost his new watch». 2. Ann said to me: «Boh went to a disco last Sunday». | 1. Ann told me that Graham had lost his new watch. 2. Ann told me that Bob had gone to a disco the previous Sunday. |
B. The Past Perfect Continuous
FORMATION
The Past Perfect Continuous Tense is formed with the auxiliary had been and the Present Participle of the main verb.
Table 9
| Affirmative | Negative | Interrogative | ||||||
| I you |
working | I you |
been working | I you |
been working? | |||
| he she it | had been | he she it | had not been | had | he she it | |||
| we you they | we you they | we you they | ||||||
Contractions
'd = had; hadn't = had not
USAGE
The Past Perfect Continuous is used to denote a) actions or situations continuing over a period up to a specific time in the past (inclusive meaning), b) past actions of certain duration which had visible results in the past (exclusive meaning).
When she arrived I had already been waiting for three hours.
I had been using the machine for some time before I realized there was no ink in it.
Paul's head ached because he had been sitting in the sun.
When used in Reported (Indirect) Speech the Past Perfect Continuous replaces both the Present Perfect Continuous and the Past Continuous of a Direct Speech sentence (if the reporting verb is in the Past Simple).
| Direct Speech | Indirect Speech |
| 1 . Mrs. Brown said: «I have been working hard all day and I am very tired». 1. Jane asked: «Was it still raining when you arrived?» | 1 . Mrs. Brown said she had been working very hard all day and she was very tired. 2. Jane wondered if it had still been raining when he arrived. |
Compare the use of the Past Perfect Simple, the Past Perfect Continuous and the Past Simple tense-forms.
|
|
|
1. She ran downstairs to open the door, but it was too late. The postman had already gone.
2. She apologized and said she had already had lunch.
3. Hejtad been smoking for 20 years before he finally gave it up last year.
4. All the roads were blocked: it had been snowing all night long.
5. I had hardly got off the tram when it suddenly started moving.
6. I felt awful after dinner. I had eaten too much.
7. It turned out that Patric had broken his leg the previous morning.
8. I was pleased to see my old college friends at the conference last week as we hadn 't seen each other since we finished our course.
9. Maggie took a hot bath after she had been working in the garden all afternoon.
10. I had a pleasant surprise when I got to my room: someone had put some flowers there for me.
PRACTICE
Дата добавления: 2018-09-20; просмотров: 346; Мы поможем в написании вашей работы! |
Мы поможем в написании ваших работ!