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The past perfect tense is
used in several different ways.
One of the
most common ones happens when there are
two
past actions and one happened before the other:
the past perfect
tense is used for
the first (earlier) action.
Another common use for the
past perfect is in indirect
(reported)
speech. In indirect speech, the tenses of
verbs
in
statements and questions
that are reported (said by
one person
to another) are influenced by the tense of
the sentence's main verb: if the main verb
is in a past
tense, the tense
in the reported statement or
question is
changed to a corresponding past tense:
| actual past tense |
---> |
after a past main verb |
| simple past |
---> |
past perfect |
| past progressive |
---> |
past perfect progressive |
| present perfect |
---> |
past perfect |
present perfect
progressive |
---> |
past perfect
progressive |
| past perfect |
---> |
past perfect |
past perfect
progressive |
---> |
past perfect
progressive |
Examples:
Bob said to Julie, "Did
you eat earlier?" --->
Bob asked Julie if she had
eaten earlier.
Bob added, "I was hoping
to have dinner with you." --->
Bob added (that) he had
been hoping to
have dinner
with Julie.
Julie said, "I'm sorry,
but I've already eaten and I'm full." --->
Julie said (that) she was sorry but added that she had
already eaten
and (that she) was full.
Bob said, "I've been
looking forward to having dinner
with you."
--->
Bob said (that) he'd been looking forward to having
dinner with Julie.
Julie said, "I'm sorry.
I hadn't expected to see you." --->
Julie said (that) she was sorry and added that she
hadn't expected to see Bob.
Bob said, "I'd been counting
on seeing you." --->
Bob said (that) he'd been counting on seeing Julie.
_________________________________________________
Special
Notes:
| 1. |
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When the reported-speech verb
is simple present
it changes to simple past after
a past main verb:
Bob said, "I'm hungry."
--->
Bob said (that) he was hungry.
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| 2. |
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When the reported-speech verb
is present progressive
it changes to past progressive
after a past main verb:
Bob said, "I'm getting
hungry." --->
Bob said (that) he was getting hungry.
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| 3. |
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Because people sometimes feel
they might not be
understood if they changed a
present-tense verb to
a past-tense verb, they
sometimes don't change
the tense of the reported-speech
verb:
Fred said, "I'm married."
--->
Fred said (that) he is married.
(Fred doesn't want to suggest
that he was married
but isn't now.)
Ahmed said, "My father
is living in Kuwait." --->
Ahmed said
(that) his father is
living in Kuwait.
(Ahmed doesn't want to suggest
that his father
isn't living in Kuwait now.)
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| 4. |
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Notice
that the past perfect and the past perfect
progressive
tenses don't change in reported speech
after a
past-tense verb. This happens because in
English,
there isn't a tense that is "more past" than
the
past perfect. |
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| 5. |
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Verbs with modal auxiliaries
are complicated in
reported speech:
modal
auxiliary |
---> |
after a past
main verb |
| can |
---> |
could |
| could |
---> |
could* |
| may |
---> |
might |
| might |
---> |
might* |
| must |
---> |
must |
| should |
---> |
should |
| will |
---> |
would |
| would |
---> |
would* |
Examples:
Julie said, "I can still
go with you. I just
won't eat."
--->
Julie said (that) she could still go with Bob.
She added that
she just wouldn't eat.
Bob said,
"I would really appreciate that." --->
Bob said (that) he would really appreciate
Julie's doing that.
Bob added,
"You shouldn't do that if you
don't
really want to."-->
Bob said (that) Julie shouldn't do that if she
didn't really want
to."
Bob thought,
"Julie must really want to go out
with me."
--->
Bob thought (that) Julie must really want to go out
with him.
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