Module 5: Grammar

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Grammar Point: Past Perfect

Meaning: 

• When the speaker is referring to events in the past, the past perfect is used to make clear that something happened earlier in time than another past time that the speaker is referencing

Difficulties

• Learners frequently incorrectly use the past perfect to signal something that happened a long time ago

Use

• The past perfect is only mandatory when two events are reported out of sequence and there are no time adverbials.  It is not used when the order of the verbs follows the order of events.

Difficulties

• After studying the past perfect, Learners will often overextend its use to any narrative in which there are two verbs in the same sentence.

Form

• had + past participle

• “had” is sometimes contracted in spoken English or informal written English

Difficulties

• Because the past simple and past participle form of regular verbs are the same, learners might not realize that the past perfect uses the past participle unless they encounter examples of irregular verbs.

Pronunciation

• “had” can be pronounced as either a strong  /hæd/ or a weak form /(h)əd/.  Because it is an auxiliary verb in the past perfect, it is commonly pronounced with the weak form unless it is being emphasized. 

• “had” is frequently pronounced in a contracted form /d/

Difficulties

• Learners may overuse the strong form of “had”

• Learners may not hear the contracted form of “had”, and thus might not realize the past perfect is being used.

Guided Discovery Appendix

Context.  (The following is done as a dictogloss, following the normal dictogloss procedure. )

Yesterday morning, my alarm went off at 6 AM, and I woke up.  I got out of bed and drank the coffee that I had made the night before. Then I ate some bread and cheese that I’d bought last week.  I took a shower, and then put on some clean clothes that I’d washed the day before.  I went to work and read the report that my boss had written.  Then I worked on the project that my co-worker had started the day before.

Noticing: At the end of the dictogloss, the students will be given a written form of the text to compare their final answers with.  Then, students will be asked to underline the verbs in the written text, and encouraged to devise two categories that they can sort the verbs into.

Then, the students will be given the guided discovery worksheet.  (Guided discovery worksheet below):

Worksheet: past perfect

A. Yesterday morning, my alarm went off at 6 AM, and I woke up.  I got out of bed and drank the coffee that I had made the night before. 

1) When did I get out of bed?

2) When did I drink the coffee?

3) When did I make the coffee?

4) Put these events in the order they happened in time:

____ got out of bed

____ drank the coffee

____ had made (the coffee)

B. Choose the correct timeline for this sentence:  I got out of bed and drank the coffee that I had made the night before

1)2)

3)4)

C. “had made coffee” is in the past perfect tense.  Choose the correct rule for the past perfect?

1. The past perfect is used to show that something happened a long time ago.

2. The past perfect is used  to show that something happened before now.

3. The past perfect is used to show that something happened before the time in the past that is being talked about.

4. The past perfect is used to show that something happened after the past simple.

D.   Look at the three sentences.  When should you not use the past perfect?  1 and 3 are incorrect.  2 and 4 are correct.  

1. Yesterday morning, my alarm had gone off at 6 AM, and I woke up. (incorrect)

2. Yesterday morning, my alarm went off at 6 AM, and I woke up. (correct)

3.  I had gotten out of bed and drank the coffee that I had made the night before. (incorrect)

4. Yesterday morning, my alarm went off at 6 AM, and I woke up. (correct)

Circle the correct answer:

You should not use the past perfect when:

1. The order of the verbs and the order of the time is the same

2. The order of the verbs and the order of the time is different

E. Look at table showing past perfect verbs from the story.  Write the form above the column:

had	made
’d	bought
’d	washed
had	written
had	started

F. In the sentence, “that I had made the night before”, what is the correct pronunciation of “had”?

1). /hæd/

2). /həd/