Past Simple vs Past Perfect Simple
Objectives of today’s lesson:
In this lesson, Learn English with Julia presents to you “Past Simple v Past Perfect (simple)”, in order for you to:
- get some practice with Past Simple and Past Perfect exercises with answers
- understand the difference between Past Simple and Past Perfect
- understand the difference between Past Simple and Past Participle
- see further examples of Past Simple and Past Perfect
Video Script:
Hello and welcome to this video on the simple past versus past perfect!
Here you can see on the timeline that in red we have the past perfect that appears and in blue the simple past.
So essentially what we need to remember is if we want to contrast what came before an action or what came after another action we can use these two tenses together.
So the past perfect precedes the simple past. Our examples for today:
I had studied hard before I took my exams or: after I had studied hard I took my exams
So you can use different signal words depending on how you wish to present the information. But you would still use the same tense for this action and the same tense for this action.
Don’t forget that there are other alternatives here, other options, other signal words
“after”: you can use with the past perfect if you’re using two different actions, one before the other.
“before”: you can use with the simple past if you’re going to insist on the fact that that happened after that had happened.
Other options in red here. These are the signal words that work with the past perfect: already, up to then, before that… and here in blue you have the signal words that work well with the simple past: before, first, then… and so on.
Grammar Quiz:
Keywords listed in English:
- Simple Past or Past Simple
- Past Perfect
- past participle
- before / after
