Grammar for ielts writing a handbook by David S. Wills Contents

Grammar for IELTS Writing

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21
Past Perfect
While the present perfect uses “has” or “have,” the past perfect simply uses “had” 
with the past participle of the main verb.
Positive
Negative
Question
I had eaten.
I 
had not eaten
.
Had
I 
eaten
?
You had eaten.
You 
had not eaten
.
Had
you 
eaten
?
We had eaten.
We 
had not eaten
.
Had
we 
eaten
?
They had eaten.
They 
had not eaten
.
Had
they 
eaten
?
He had eaten.
He 
had not eaten
.
Had
he 
eaten
?
She had eaten.
She 
had not eaten
.
Had
she 
eaten
?
It had eaten.
It 
had not eaten
.
Had
it 
eaten
?
When to Use Past Perfect
The past perfect is used to refer to an event or action that took place prior to 
the time period considered. Therefore, in the examples above, the conversation 
would revolve around an event that took place in the past, but the eating took 
place before that. For example:
A:
Do you remember last year when we first arrived at the hotel? 
B:
Yes, I remember. Oddly enough, I recall being very hungry! 
A:
Well, 
you had not eaten
 for hours.
In this case, we use the past perfect to show that the eating took place (or in 
this case, 
didn’t
take place) before the arrival at the hotel. 
Here are some more related uses: 
1. Describing repeated or extended situations
„
We had lived in that house for six years. 
„
By then, they had studied for a long time.
2. To explain a situation
„
I wasn’t afraid because I had expected the worst. 
„
He felt confident because he had already prepared. 
Past Tenses

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22
Past Perfect Continuous
The past perfect continuous is essentially the same as the present perfect con-
tinuous except that the point of reference is in the past.