TESL 0110 Unit 2 - Grammar Activity

How well do you know your pluperfect tense? Try this short activity!

TESL 0110 Grammar Activity – PAST PERFECT TENSES EXERCISES (PLUPERFECT)

Presentation style: Deductive

Activity time: 15-20minutes

The past perfect (Pluperfect) tense is used to talk about actions that were completed before another action some point in the past. When do you use past perfect tense vs. simple past? When you’re talking about some point in the past and want to reference to an event even before that event happened. Past perfect is used to demonstrate the sequence of events that has happened. Review the examples below:

The past perfect tense describes an action that happened before another past action.
⇒ My father had finished mowing the lawn when I arrived home from school.
⇒ My phone didn’t turn on because I had forgotten to charge it.
VS.
The simple past describes an action that took place in the past.
⇒ I changed my car tires yesterday.
⇒ It snowed heavily last week.

PART I: Fill in the blanks with the correct pluperfect form of the verb in parentheses.
1. Bobby ________________________(ask) Anne to dance several times before she said yes.
2. Vivienne’s lamp didn’t turn on because she ________________________(forget) to change the light bulb.
3. Margareta ________________________(leave) the party when Chelsea arrived.
4. A student didn’t complete his worksheet because he ________________________ (read) the instructions.
5. Why didn’t you come watch the movie with us? _______________ you _______________(see) the movie before?
6. My neighbor couldn’t find his dog’s toy because his dog ________________________(dig) a hole and buried it.
7. Alice forgave her friend after she ________________________(apologize).
8. I bought a new bike after my old one ________________________(break).

PART II: Underline the pluperfect tense in each of the following sentences:
1. I had dreamt about my old friend before I woke up.
2. If she had looked in the right place, she would have found the documents.
3. Before my dog came to live with us, he had belonged to my grandparents.
4. He had not called me after he arrived home.
5. My mother had not made dinner when my father called.