This comprehensive guide on the Past Perfect Tense explains its usage, sentence structures, and examples with easy-to-follow tables. Designed for students and ESL learners, the article provides a clear explanation of the past perfect tense structure. Plus, practice what you’ve learned with exercises at the end! What is Past Perfect Tense ? The past perfect tense is a verb form in English used to show that one action happened before another past action. It is formed with “had” + the past participle of the verb. For example, “She had finished her homework before dinner.” The Past Perfect Tense expresses an event that occurred before another action in the past . It can also show that something happened before a specific time in the past . This tense is generally used in reported speech, third conditional sentences, or to show dissatisfaction with the past . Learn how to form and use the past perfect tense , an English verb tense for a completed activity in the past . See examples, video lesson, interactive tables and more.