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This post deals with the question of what the difference is between the Past Simple and the Past Perfect tenses in English. It’s a question many English learners ask themselves so a useful one to read up on!
What’s the difference between the Past Simple and the Past Perfect in English?
The Past Simple and the Past Perfect are both tenses we use to talk about things that happened in the past. However, we use the Past Perfect to talk about something that happened before something else in the past. That ‘something else’ is usually expressed in the Past Simple tense.
Take a look at this example:
I had already eaten when he called. (‘had eaten’ is in the Past Perfect and ‘called’ is in the Past Simple)
This simply means: First, I ate, then, he called. Both actions happened in the past. The Past Perfect tense is used to show that the action of me eating happened before the action of him calling.
Or this one:
When we arrived, the film had already started. (‘arrived’ is in the Past Simple and ‘had started’ is in the Past Perfect)
The sentence simply means: First, the film started, then, we arrived. Both actions happened in the past and the Past Perfect tense is used to show that one action happened before the other one.