Following on from my article about
using the past perfect to demonstrate sequences, let’s look at how it can build an effective narrative. The past perfect can help create atmosphere, feeding new information into a narrative at more flexible times.
The past perfect is used in
storytelling to provide background information. Main narratives in the past are usually in the simple tense, so the past perfect can provide details of events that happened
before the main narrative.
- Jim arrived late to the office. He found a colleague had stolen his computer.
In this example, the main narrative follows Jim, and when he arrived. The computer was stolen before Jim arrived, so the past perfect is appropriate.
This use of the past perfect helps put the subject in a situation before revealing past information. It can establish past events, and add details which were not important enough to explain earlier, or it can help put events in order of discovery for the subject (for instance for tension).
- We chatted for hours before I realised we had been in the same class at school.
- I walked into the restaurant and immediately ordered the goulash. I had decided what I wanted on the way.
- Hannah went into the kitchen and was devastated to find that someone had eaten all the pie.
- The children opened the door and looked down the stairs. They flicked the light switch, but there was no light. Someone had removed the bulb.
It is useful to note that as a narrative becomes more complex, and you use more style in your English writing, the use of the past perfect may become more flexible. For example, you may choose to use the past simple after the past perfect has been used once, rather than repeat it.
- She had been to this house before. It was cold, that time, when they played tennis in the courtyard. Now, it seemed different.
The past simple may also be used instead of the past perfect to help represent the subject’s point of view.
- He wondered if eating the burger had been a bad idea.
- He wondered if eating the burger was a bad idea.
Both of these sentences could be seen as correct, though the past perfect emphasises the idea happened before; the past simple version, however, puts us more in the subject’s point of view, making the bad idea seem more immediate. Grammatically, this is not a hard rule and requires practice, and a sense for the style. But it is possible, in case you see such a use from an English speaker!
Following on from my article about using the past perfect to demonstrate sequences, let’s look at how it can build an effective narrative. The past perfect can help create atmosphere, feeding new information into a narrative at more flexible times.
The past perfect is used in storytelling to provide background information. Main narratives in the past are usually in the simple tense, so the past perfect can provide details of events that happened before the main narrative.
i found it interesting … and i would like to congratulate the effort done so that we could lear easily. thank you so much.
You are welcome, I’m glad it was useful!
Hi Phil,
Could you kindly elucidate the usage of the past perfect in news reporting?
Thanks,
Maharshi Pingali
Example
Boris Johnson vowed to preserve peace in Northern Ireland during diplomatic forays to Germany and France last week, saying “under no circumstances” would the UK put checks and controls on the border.
The prime minister’s reassurance did not reach the narrow lanes and hedgerows of County Fermanagh. Here it felt like the bad old days had already returned.
It will very much depend on context, but in many cases if we’re looking at current news than the past perfect will be referring to events occurring before the news item. But in general terms, the past perfect highlights a case where a past event was completed at a specific past time. In this case, the ‘bad old days’ must have returned before the moment in question (when the feeling was experienced), hence it is a step back, ‘felt’ in the past, ‘had returned’ before that past moment.
Is there a general rule for using the past perfect when reporting news?
Only in the sense that it is always used – to indicate that a past event was complete at a particular past time. As I said, though, in general you are likely to find the past perfect referring to events prior to the events of the news item.
Is that why one finds the past perfect used as a fragment in some situations? Example – “The president had signed the treaty.” In the above sentence there is only one event.
Sorry for the slow reply – it could be an explanation for that, yes, though it may depend on the context of the article. A fragment would suggest we have an idea of what this past perfect event preceded, so without other context it would probably imply a meaning of ‘at a time before the story in question’.
Does news reporting necessitate the usage of the past perfect? Can it be done using the simple past?
Oh no, there are never such necessities – very often with the past perfect the past simple can be used instead, but it will depend very much on context as to what will be the clearest way to present your information.
I’d like send you a few grammar questions. Could you please share your email ID?
Hi Maharshi, certainly you can contact me through the email on the Contact page, here:
https://englishlessonsbrighton.co.uk/contact/
Hello Phil, hope you’ve received my email.
Hi Phil,
Can we use past perfect continuous as well in the sentence: We chatted for hours before I realised we had been in the same class at school? – We had been chatting…
Or in storytelling we alway use past perfect, not past perfect continuous?
I mean, when i want to show that one action was in progress before a second action started in this sentence?
Hi Yulia,
Absolutely, yes you can use the perfect continuous there in the same way we would consider the difference between the past simple and past continuous, most often it would be if we want to show an action was interrupted, as you say, or if we want to emphasise the process.
Phil
Hi Maharshi, I don’t believe I did – sorry you haven’t received a response, I’ll check on case if it’s got lost in a different folder.
I can resend the email in case you haven’t received the same. Please let me know.
Hi Maharshi – I have found the email, I will reply! Apologies it seems some of my website messages were going to my spam folder, thanks for drawing my attention to this.
Hi ,
Usually , we use past perfect to show earlier action like past perfect and past simple. But could we use it alone without past simple ? I found this example while reading book .here it is:
Nana had almost married once when she was fifteen .The suitor had been a boy from shindand .
In the second sentence past perfect is used to show state but not with the link of past simple. Can we use it in this way. Please elaborate
Hi Jenny,
Yes, this is quite common when the context is already understood. Essentially if we already have an idea of the past time that we are discussing then we don’t need a simple clause to frame it again, and can keep using past perfect sentences to indicate “before that time”. In your example, the first sentence establishes a past time, “when she was fifteen”, so we could continue a narrative with lots of past perfect sentences that could all be understood to mean before or up to that time, when she was fifteen. This can be tricky to follow as it depends on the context, which will set certain indicators that make the past perfect possible.
It can also be confusing because it can also work the other way around; we might not necessarily keep using the past perfect consistently this way, and might start using the past simple again once it is established that all the sentences are referring to a certain time. It really does depend a bit!
But I hope this helps.
Phil