The Past Perfect Tense is formed by using the Past Simple Tense of the verb 'to have' with the participle.
For regular verbs, just add 'ed' to the infinitive.
For irregular verbs, use the participle form.
Positive
Negative
Question
All pronouns
I hadworked
You had not worked
Had she worked?
We had spoken
He had not spoken
Had they spoken?
Use of Past Perfect
Signal words
already, just, never, not yet, once, until that day (with reference to the past, not the present)
If-Sentence type III (If I had talked,...)
The past perfect simple expresses an action taking place before a certain time in the past, or it expresses that someting did NOT happen in the past, and therefore something else did not, either.
Actions taking place before a certain time in the past
Examples:
Before I came here, I had spoken to Jack.
I had never seen such a beautiful beach before I went to Kauai.
I did not have any money because I had lost my wallet.
Tony knew Istanbul so well because he had visited the city several times.
Had Susan ever studied Thai before she moved to Thailand?
She only understood the movie because she had read the book.
We were not able to get a hotel room because we had not booked in advance.
A: Had you ever visited the U.S. before your trip in 2006?
B: Yes, I had been to the U.S. once before.
Actions that did NOT happen in the past (Conditional Sentences Type III)
Examples:
If I had seen him, I would have talked to him. (But I did not see him, so I did not talk to him either)
If I had owned a car, I would have driven to work. But I didn't own one, so I took the bus.
She would have traveled around the world if she had had more money. But she didn't have much money, so she never traveled.
I would have read more as a child if I hadn't watched so much TV. Unfortunately, I did watch a lot of TV, so I never read for entertainment.
Mary would have gotten the job and moved to Japan if she had studied Japanese in school instead of French.
If Jack had worked harder, he would have earned more money. Unfortunately, he was lazy and he didn't earn much.
A: What would you have done if you had won the lottery last week?
B: I would have bought a house.