When and why using did/didn't instead of had/hadn't?

[Neen]

Hi !

Can someone explain me when and why using did/didn't instead of had/hadn't ?
What are the names of these different tenses ? What do they exactly express ? In which occurences is it preferable to use them ?

Thanks for your replies ! :)
Neen

[Jamie (K)]

I think you need to look in a grammar book at the "simple past" tense and the "present perfect" tense. This should answer your questions, but if there is any specific confusion after that, we'd be glad to address it.

[Neen]

[Jamie (K)]

Here are a couple of pages that explain them pretty well.

For the simple past:
http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/simplepast.html

For the present perfect:
http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/presentperfect.html

If they still confuse you, we'd be happy to answer some specific question.

[Neen]

Thank you very much Jamie , it's been very useful.

[K7nixen]

Not "present perfect" but "past perfect"