Question in Past perfect tense

[Kjsivakumar]

Hello All,
I want to know the details about past perfect tense. Where is it using in conversation and which situation?

Please explain simple and briefly about it.

thanks
sivakumar

[Daemon99]

Past perfect tense comes into picture when there are two actions involved. You should use past perfect tense for the action that has been completed before the other one. You should use simple past for the event that happened later.

I am going to narrate something that happened yesterday. I'll use simple past for the actions that happened yesterday. Now I want to say about an event (John leaving for Paris) that happened in the further past, say, the day before yesterday, then I will use the past perfect tense (had left).

When I reached the school yesterday I couldn't find my friend John anywhere in the classroom. I asked Joseph if he knew anything about why John didn't come to the school. He said John had left for Paris the day before and wouldn't come back.

I will give you another example.

The train had left when we reached the station.

Action #1: Train leaving the station
Action #2: We reaching the station.

Both these actions happened in the past but Action #1 happened first, followed by the second one. Use past perfect for Action #1 and simple past for Action #2.

Hope this helps.
_________________
Non-native speaker of English
=================================
I intend to live forever - so far, so good.

[Sekar.maha]

useful information.