When we talk about narrations in terms of grammar and language, there are two very important vocabulary words: tense and aspect. These two concepts give us different, but essential, information about the story we are listening to.
tells us WHEN in time a verb occurred. Think of this as a timeline.
adds information by telling us HOW that verb occurred in that time. Was it continuous? Or was the action in one particular moment?
One aspect we will discuss is past perfect. We use perfect to talk about an action that was already completed in the past. We use this when we are telling a story in the past, but we want to indicate that one action happened before this point in the story.
For example:
She had already gone grocery shopping by the time he came home. (completed before)
The students had asked the teacher the same question yesterday. (completed before)
You hadn't been to New York City before this trip, correct?
You'll notice that the past perfect is often used surrounded by the other forms of the past. This is because it is making an order of events more clear in the past. The verb in past perfect happens first.
Past Perfect has two pieces: the auxiliary had and a past participle. A past participle can sometimes look like the past form of the word or can be totally different. Here are some examples.
I told him that I had eaten dinner.
The news of the discovery had already spread.
List of English Past ParticiplesWatch this video about Rosa Parks. Notice that the majority of the verbs are in the simple past. Many other verbs are in passive voice, which also uses the past participle. However, the past perfect is used a few times to provide important context of the order of events. Listen carefully and pause the video to write down the past perfect examples you hear.
Transcript Marked
she had traveled
a young woman who had been
she had hoped
Park’s simple act had transformed
But this victory for the movement had come
Rosa had been receiving
Speaking Practice
Answer Key
Here is a list of the past tense verbs used in the video.
Past verb answer key
Simple Past | Past Progressive | Past Perfect |
---|---|---|
received constructed had discovered came decided called weren't reached found pitted was/were left drew traveled weighed battled began proved made stayed arrived traversed covered reached succumbed hoped | were going was leading was (also) heading
| had spent had secured/hand-picked had (long) dreamed had staked had (already) visited had been visited (passive) was greeted (passive) had been documented (passive)
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