I. Grammar

Past Perfect

Questions

THE PAST PERFECT

If you want to talk about a past action which took place before another past action, you can use had, followed by the past participle of the main verb.

After the visitors had left, we watched TV.

They told me that the taxi had already arrived.

You can also use the past perfect in a ‘progressive’ form by using had been, and putting it in front of a main verb with an ‑ing ending.

We had only been driving for an hour when the car ran out of petrol.

Using the right time phrases with the past tense

If you use words or phrases about time with the simple past, they must have a meaning which shows there has been a space between the time when the action or event happened and the time when you are talking or writing about it. For example:

I saw John yesterday/a week ago/last Tuesday.

If you use other words or phrases about time with the present perfect, they must have a meaning which shows that the action has continued up to the present, and may still going on. For example:

I haven’t seen John since Monday/so far/yet.

Don’t say ‘I’ve seen him a week ago’ or ‘I didn’t see John since Monday’.

USED TO

You use used to when you want to say that something happened in the past over a period of time, but it no longer happens now. It is found only in the past tense. You use used to with the basic form of the main verb, for example used to smoke, used to live, used to be.

I used to play football a lot when I was at school.

She used to smoke 40 cigarettes a day.

The club used to be very fashionable.

They used to live in Los Angeles.

In negatives, you say didn’t use to, or used not to.

I didn’t use to like spicy food. OR I used not to like spicy food.

In questions, you say did (you/she/john etc) use to...?

Did you use to smoke?

What did she use to call him?

QUESTIONS

Questions are sentences which ask for information. They fall into three main types, depending on the kind of reply they expect.

‘Yes‑no questions’ expect a simple yes or no reply (or a word or phrase which can be used instead of yes or no). In these cases, you change the order of subject and verb.

Will Jane resign? (Possible answers: yes, no, don’t know; probably, maybe etc)

Are they ready?

‘Wh‑ questions’ begin with a question word, such as what, why, where, or how. This kind of question can have a wide range of different replies. The answer may be a full sentence, or one which leaves out the words that you can guess from knowing the question. Here too, you need to change the order of subject and verb.

Where are you going? (Possible answers: I’m going to work, downstairs, the library etc)

‘Alternative questions’ give the listener a choice of two possible replies, both of which are mentioned in the question. The two possibilities are connected by the word or. Once again, you must change the order of subject and verb.

Will you travel by train or by boat? (Possible answers: by train, by boat, don’t know etc)

Tag questions

You can change a statement into a question by adding a ‘tag question’ at the end of it. When you use a tag question, you are asking the listener to agree with the statement you have just made. If you make the statement positive, you expect the answer yes. If you make it negative, you expect the answer no.

A tag question is a type of ‘yes‑no question’, and shows the same change of word order. You use the same personal pronoun (she, they etc) and tense of the verb as in the statement to which the tag question is joined. In the most common kind of tag question, you change from positive to negative, or from negative to positive.

She’s outside, isn’t she? (Expected answer: yes)

They were ready, weren’t they? (Expected answer: yes)

You aren’t going, are you? (Expected answer: no)

It isn’t difficult, is it? (Expected answer: no)

Questions which are not questions

You can also use a sentence which looks like a question, but it is one where you are not actually expecting any reply. Because these sentences are halfway between a question and an exclamation, you will find them sometimes written with a question‑mark and sometimes with an exclamation mark.

In some cases, you already know the answer or you are asking your listener to agree with you. These sentences are called ‘exclamatory questions’.

Hasn’t she grown!

Wasn’t the book marvellous?

In other cases, no answer is possible. (Of course your listener may still give you an answer, whether you like it or not!) These sentences are used when you want to express a strong feeling about something. They are called ‘rhetorical questions’.

Doesn’t everyone know that the whole thing is impossible?