In the English language, the past perfect tense is used to describe an event that happened in the past, before another event that also happened in the past. Use the past perfect tense to describe a relationship between two events that occurred at different times in the past.

Add Had

To use the past perfect tense, you add the word "had" before the past-tense form of the verb in your sentence.

Past Perfect vs. Past

In the past, an event happened. Before that, another event had happened. The first sentence in this section is an example of using the past tense, while the second is an example of past perfect tense.

Many Events

Let's say that you started dating someone, and then you broke up with her. Then you started dating another person. You could use the past perfect tense to say: "I had broken up with Jane before I started dating Stephanie." This shows that even though both events happened in the past, your breakup preceded your new relationship.

Contractions

To use the past perfect tense in its contraction form, add an apostrophe and a letter "d" to the subject. For example, instead of saying, "I had eaten," you could say, "I'd eaten."

Important Sequencing

The way you sequence your sentences may be important. For example, you have two sentences: "I threw up." "I ate ice cream." Both of these sentences describe past actions, but we don't know if you threw up as a result of eating ice cream or if you ate ice cream after being sick. The past perfect helps to clarify this: "I threw up. I had eaten ice cream earlier."

Source:

St. Cloud State: Verb Tenses

UVic English Language Centre: Forming and Using the Past Perfect Tense