Advanced Lesson 3 -
Saul Becomes a Follower of the Lord
Grammar Exercise
This is the fifth part of Advanced Lesson 3, or you can do it as an individual grammar lesson. In this lesson, we’ll take a closer look at the past perfect verb tense. If you are an intermediate learner, this is a great lesson for you to be introduced to this tense that is not used much in speaking, but is more common in writing. (All of the Bible verses are from the CEV Bible, with bold added.)
The Past Perfect Tense
The past perfect verb tense expresses the “past in the past,” or an action in the past that took place before another action in the past. Here is an example from our Bible story:
- The men with Saul stood there speechless. They had heard the voice, but they had not seen anyone. (Acts 9:7)
The action is that the men stood there. Before they stood there, they had heard the voice but had not seen anyone. “Had heard” and “had not seen” give us background information, also in the past, for the main action that happened after those things, “the men stood.”
Past Perfect is a Compound Verb
A “compound verb” needs two or more words to make one verb.
The Helping Verb
The first word of the past perfect tense is always the helping verb “have.” It is conjugated in the past simple tense, so it is the same for every subject:
I had
you had
he/she/it had
we had
they had
The Action Verb
The second part of this verb is the action verb in its past participle form. That means that regular verbs have an -ed on the end. Some verbs have irregular past participles, and you will just have to learn them. But don’t worry! Many times these irregular verbs are common verbs, so you will learn and remember them quickly.
More Examples
Here are two more examples from our text that contain the past perfect tense:
- …He did this because he wanted to arrest and take to Jerusalem any man or woman who had accepted the Lord’s Way. (Acts 9:2b)
Some people accepted the Lord’s Way in the past, before Saul decided to arrest them, also in the past. We use the past perfect to describe this “past in the past” action, “had accepted.” Here’s another example from our text:
- When Saul had almost reached Damascus, a bright light from heaven suddenly flashed around him. (Acts 9:3)
In this sentence, Saul had almost reached Damascus, the past perfect action, when a bright light flashed.
A Past Perfect Timeline
It might help to look at a timeline of these events that took place in the past. The past perfect can have two kinds of timelines. The first situation is two separate actions, one that happens before the other.
- The men with Saul stood there speechless. They had heard the voice, but they had not seen anyone. (Acts 9:7)
In this timeline, there were two events that happened in the past, “had heard” and “had not seen” in the past perfect. After those events, still in the past, the men “stood there speechless,” in the past simple.
- When Saul had almost reached Damascus, a bright light from heaven suddenly flashed around him. (Acts 9:3)
In this sentence, the past perfect event was ongoing, they were walking to Damascus and “had almost reached” the city. Then another event happened, the light “flashed,” in the past simple, still in the past.
Using Other Adverbs with the Present Perfect
It’s very common to use a word like “always,” “never,” “often,” etc. with the present perfect, just like with other compound verbs. Put this adverb between the helping verb and the verb in the past participle form.
- They only asked us to remember the poor, and this was something I had always been eager to do. (Galatians 2:10)
- We act as though you had never ruled us or called us your people. (Isaiah 63:19)
“After” and “Before” With the Present Perfect
When you use words like “before” and “after” to discuss pass events, it’s usually clear which event came before or after the other. In that case, it isn’t necessary to use the past perfect. Here are some examples of sentences that use “before” and “after,” and they are rewritten to use the past perfect.
- Very early the next morning before daylight, Jesus got up and went to a place where he could be alone and pray. (Mark 1:35)
Jesus had gotten up early and went to a place where he could be alone and pray.
- “Put a saddle on my donkey,” he told them. After they did, he got on the donkey. (1 Kings 13:13)
When they had put the saddle on the donkey, he got on.
Contractions in the Past Perfect
It’s not very common in American English to make contractions in the past perfect, especially not in casual speech because the pronunciation can be difficult. It can be done, though, if the subject is a pronoun.
I’d called him but he didn’t call back.
She left the car at the shop because he’d asked her to.
Most Native Speakers Don’t Know This
When using the past perfect in speaking, native speakers will not normally stress the helping verb in a sentence. In these sentences, the helping verb “had” is reduced to the contraction “d.” Most of the time, it is not pronounced at all, and sounds more like the past simple, if the past participle is the same as the the past simple form.
I called him but he didn’t call back.
She left the car at the shop because he asked her to.
It is not grammatically correct to eliminate the past perfect in this way, but it is very common in speaking – so much so that many people would consider it correct. You can choose to do this, too, so that your speech might sound more native and casual, but just be aware that it isn’t grammatically correct. Now you know something that a lot of native speakers don’t know!
Using the Past Perfect in a Negative Sentence
To make present perfect negative, just put the word “not” after the helping verb “had.”
- …They had not brought along anything to eat… (Mark 8:1)
- Even Jesus’ own brothers had not yet become his followers. (John 7:5)
You can make contractions with a negative sentence. Use the “had” and the “not” together, like this:
- …They hadn’t brought along anything to eat…
- Even Jesus’ own brothers hadn’t yet become his followers.
Using the Present Perfect in a Question
You can make a question out of the past perfect, but it isn’t common. For the most part, people will phrase questions like this in a different way, because using the past perfect sound very stiff and formal. Here’s an example:
Had she left by the time the kids got home?
A more common way to phrase this in speaking would be to use the adverb “before” with a verb in the past simple, like this:
Did she leave before the kids got home?
Practice Makes (Past) Perfect!
The past perfect tense is common in the Bible, as well as in other books you might read, because writing generally uses the past tense to tell the story. Past perfect is especially common in the Genesis story of Creation. Practice using this tense by thinking about different past events that happened in your own life.
There is a lot of information you can find online about the present perfect. There are also interactive quizzes you can do online. Try this worksheet to start, from www.english-grammar.at. Some of the sentences contain the words “before” and “after.” You can use the past perfect in these sentences, or you can use the simple past. The answers are on the second page. You will also find many other worksheets on this website that will help you practice your English grammar.
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