The Past Perfect expresses the idea that something occurred before another action in the past. It can also show that something happened before a specific time in the past.
It is used to sequence the past events in narrations. It helps to show which event heppened first
For example:
1) A: Why didn't you call me?
B. I wanted to call you, but I had spent all my credit. (that happened before "want to call you")
2) He was nervous because he had never dived before.
FORM
[had + past participle]
Affirmative: You had studied English before you moved to New York.
Question: Had you studied English before you moved to New York?
Negative: You had not studied English before you moved to New York.
Exercises:
Recognize past perfect: http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/StudyZone/410/grammar/pastpf1.htm
Work on the form: http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/StudyZone/410/grammar/pastpf2.htm
http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/past-perfect-simple/exercises
Simple past and past perfect:
http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/pastperfect/exercise1.html
http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/pastperfect/exercise6.html
http://www.usingenglish.com/quizzes/140.html
Simple past and past perfect in context: http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/verbs11.htm
TASK
You are very annoyed with one of your classmates. The teacher asked you to do a project in teams but he is really lazy and irresponsible so you finished doing almost all the project alone because he never finished the work on time.
Tell us what happened.
Example:
"Ronald is really irresponsible! I don't want to work with him anymore.
Before he answered my text message, I had already sent him 3 messages to his cellphone asking him to call me.
I had looked up for new words and I had written a list by the time he sent his list.
He paid for the material that we used in the project after I had asked him many times to pay it."
