The focus is usually shown by the past simple, and the past perfect provides some kind of background information for the past simple action. In comparison, the second two sentences are focused on "I didn't study English". The first two sentences are focused on "I moved to New York", and that seems to be the main topic of the conversation. But it is important to note that the sentences focus on different things. The second two use the past perfect with the "not done or incomplete at the time of the past simple action" meaning. The first two use the past perfect simply to show the time order of events. Yes, you can use "before" instead of "until" here.Ībout the New York sentences, they are all grammatical. "talking" was incomplete, so I only spoke after she had finished talking). I didn’t say anything until she had finished talking (= at the time when I did not say anything, she had not yet finished talking i.e. This is the meaning in your other examples, e.g. We can use before/ until + past perfect to show that an action was not done or was incomplete at the time of the past simple action. The usage of the past perfect with before/until is a different usage. Here, the larger meaning is that my watching habit was broken. There also needs to be a meaningful connection between the past perfect and past simple actions, i.e. I should point out that the past perfect is not used simply to show that one action happened before another one. The key connection is between the actions in bold: these together make the larger meaning of the whole sentence. The past perfect is not used for "since it started" because that is not the key connection between the actions. The past perfect "had been watching" shows that the "watching" action was completed before "I missed the last episode" (not before "since it started", which is illogical, as you mentioned). The full example is: I had been watching that programme every week since it started, but I missed the last episode. So, why I use past perfect as this when using until and since? I didn’t study English until I had moved to New York. I didn’t study English before I had moved to New York. I had not studied English until I moved to New York. I had not studied English before I moved to New York. I didn’t say anything before she had finished talking. As I see, the first thing happened that I didn’t say, then he finished.Īnd here “until” sounds like “before” so, can I use before in this kind of sentences? For example: I see here that you used this sentence”I had been watching that programme every week since it started” and here we have two actions, the one that happened before is started then had been watching! Right? So, how this happens? As I know, past perfect happens first, but here I see that simple past happens first! The programme started, then I started watching it!Īnother question about “until” here’s an example “I didn’t say anything until she had finished talking”. I have a question about “until and since” We can also use the past perfect to make hypotheses about the past (when we imagine something). GapFillTyping_MjM0NDg= Past perfect and hypotheses Matching_MTYzMzM= Past perfect and past simple Up until that moment, I' d never believed(NOT been believing) in astrology. We do not normally use the past perfect continuous with stative verbs. I had been watching that programme every week since it started, but I missed the last episode. We often use expressions with for and since with the past perfect: Teresa wasn't at home. She had gone shopping. I couldn't get into the house. I had lost my keys. for something that happened in the past and is important at a later time in the past:.I hadn’t met him before, even though I had met his wife several times. My eighteenth birthday was the worst day I had ever had. when we are reporting our experience up to a point in the past:.He had written three books and he was working on another one. He had been playing ever since he was a teenager. for something that happened several times before a point in the past and continued after that point:.She had been living in Liverpool all her life.Įverything was wet. She had lived in Liverpool all her life.įor this use, we often use the past perfect continuous: When George died, he and Anne had been married for nearly fifty years. for something that started in the past and continued up to a given time in the past:.The past perfect is used in the same way as the present perfect, but it refers to a time in the past, not the present. We use the past perfect: The past perfect continuous is made from had been and the - ing formof a verb: The past perfect is made from the verb had and the past participleof a verb:
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