Grammar: Groups & phrases: Verb group: Time & tense

Past perfect

Adverbs with the past perfect

Adverbs of time and prepositional phrases need to be considered when looking at the past perfect. The usage of adverbs with the past perfect is similar to the usage with the present perfect, but with adjustments to take into account the different time orientation. For example up to now would be used with the present perfect, but with the past perfect we would use up to then.

When we refer to indefinite events we often use an adverb which expresses unspecified time such as already, before, ever, never, once, twice, yet:

I saw that he had filled the bag already.

When we want to make the current relevance of an action explicit, we often use adverbs such as just, recently and lately:

I was worried about Grandpa - he had just gone outside in the rain.

When we want to make the relevance of a state explicit to a certain time orientation, we often use prepositional phrases such as up to then:

Ricky had been a very good student up to then.

When we refer to habits or recurrent events, we often use the prepositional phrases with for and since. For is used to refer to a period of time in the past and since to a point of time in the past:

She said Grandpa had smoked two cigarettes every evening for the past fifty years.
[here we focus on the whole 50 years]

She said Grandpa had smoked two cigarettes every evening since he was a boy.
[here we focus on the point when he started to smoke]

For more information on adverbs, see Grammar: Word classes: Adverbs: Overview