The Present Perfect Tense: Part One


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In today's lesson we continue our unit on verbs and we begin our discussion of the verb tense, the Past Perfect.

Before we begin, you might want to reference our lesson, " What Is the Difference between a Verb Tense and a Time Reference?"

How Do We Form the Past Perfect Tense?

The past perfect tense consists of two parts.  Use -

  1. the simple past tense had

  2. the past participle (also known as the 3rd part of the verb of the main verb.

The Past Participle Form


Regular Verbs

Below is a chart of the past perfect form of the regular verb (to) wait.

In a regular verb, the past participle (sometimes called the 3rd part of the verb) is formed by adding -ed to the base form of the verb.

had + past participle form of the verb
I, you had waited
he, she, it had waited
we, they had waited

Irregular Verbs

Here is a chart of the past perfect form of some common irregular verbs:

Base Form Past Perfect Tense
beat had beaten
break had  broken
do had  done
drive had driven
eat had eaten
give had given
go had gone
know had known
make had made
put had put
see had seen

Next...  When Do We Use the Past Perfect Tense?

In our next lesson, we teach 'When to Use the Past Perfect Tense'

So from the ESL Help Desk, thanks for dropping by for this lesson and remember to email us your questions about English grammar by way of our blog. 

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