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

Past perfect

Past perfect in Questions and negative Statements

When we are asking a Question using the past perfect, we need to use the past simple form of the auxiliary verb have and the past participle of the main verb:

The same is true when we are making a negative Statement:

Dotty had never played football.

In a positive Statement, negative Statement or Question, the tense is expressed through the auxiliary verb be:

Kitty and Bozo had played football since they were very young.
                    auxiliary

Had Ricky ever played football?
auxiliary

SleepStealer had never played football.
                 auxiliary

Note that the terms Question and Statement are written with an initial capital letter because they are functional terms.

For more information, see Grammar: Clause: Using clauses to interact: The grammar of speech functions