past perfect

English

Noun

Examples

I had gotten angry with them once before. (US) or I had got angry with them once before. (UK) She had driven herself to work, where she was congratulated on her promotion. He only started learning to play guitar after he had heard Hendrix play. They had changed by the end of the war. Although he now seemed friendly and harmless, he had carried a pistol with him during many of the long journeys. Although he finally came to the party, she had already made her decision.

past perfect (uncountable)

1. A tense which describes actions that occurred before another action or event in the past; the pluperfect or the past anterior tense.

Derived terms

• past perfect continuous

Translations

tense

• Danish: førdatid c
• Faroese: táliðin tíð f
• Finnish: pluskvamperfekti (fi)
• Icelandic: þáliðin tíð (is) f
• Italian: trapassato remoto (it) m
• Malayalam: പൂർണ്ണഭൂതകാലം (pūṟṇṇabhūtakālaṁ)
• Persian: گذشته ی بعید (gozashteye ba'id)
• Polish: czas zaprzeszły (pl)
• Portuguese: pretérito mais-que-perfeito (pt) m

pluperfect tense — see pluperfect tense