Past perfect
Prueba tu comprensiónFunciones del "past perfect"
El "past perfect" hace referencia a un tiempo anterior al pasado reciente. Se emplea para señalar que un evento ocurrió antes que otro en el pasado. No importa cuál de los eventos se mencione primero, porque el tiempo verbal deja claro el orden temporal en que acontecieron.
En estos ejemplos, el Evento A es el que primero ocurrió y el Evento B tuvo lugar a continuación, es el más reciente:
| Evento A | Evento B |
| John had gone out | when I arrived in the office. |
| Evento A | Evento B |
| I had saved my document | before the computer crashed. |
| Evento B | Evento A |
| When they arrived | we had already started cooking. |
| Evento B | Evento A |
| He was very tired | because he hadn't slept well. |
Formación del "past perfect"
En inglés, el "past perfect" está compuesto por dos partes: el pasado del verbo to have (had) + el "past participle" del verbo principal.
| Sujeto | +had | +past participle |
|---|---|---|
| Afirmativa | ||
| She | had | given |
| Negativa | ||
| She | hadn't | asked. |
| Interrogativa | ||
| Had | they | arrived? |
| Interrogativa negativa | ||
| Hadn't | you | finished? |
To decide, "past perfect"
| Afirmativa | Negativa | Interrogativa |
|---|---|---|
| I had decided | I hadn't decided | Had I decided? |
| You had decided | You hadn't decided | Had you decided? |
| She had decided | She hadn't decided | Had she decided? |
| We had decided | We hadn't decided | Had we decided? |
| They had decided | They hadn't decided | Had they decided? |
"Past perfect" + just
'Just' se utiliza con el "past perfect" para referirse a un evento acontecido muy poco antes de otro evento situado en el pasado, e.g.
- The train had just left when I arrived at the station.
- She had just left the room when the police arrived.
- I had just put the washing out when it started to rain.