Past Perfect · Exercises
B1Intermediate practice
Past perfect vs. past simple, already and yet.
Play
- Practice10 exercises at your own pace
- Time Attack60 seconds, as many as you can
- Survival3 lives, harder as you go
- Tense SortDrag sentences into their tense — 60 seconds
- Timelines10 sentences to match to their timelines
- B1 Boss12 hits before you lose 3 lives
- Irregular MatchPair verbs with their past forms — 60 seconds
Want to mix tenses, go endless or pick exercise types? Set up your own session.
What you’ll practise at B1
- had + past participle
- Past participles (gone, seen, written…)
- Negatives: hadn’t
- Questions: Had you…?
- Short answers
- by the time / already / never … before
- Past perfect or past simple?
- Timelines: what the tense means
Need a refresher? Learn the past perfect: rules, tables and audio examples.
Sample exercises
A taste of what’s inside. In practice mode every exercise is freshly generated.
Write the verb in the past perfect or the past simple.
Last night the woman upstairs _____ (wrap) the presents and then went home.
Show answer
Last night the woman upstairs wrapped the presents and then went home.
The actions are told in the order they happened (… and then …), so both use the past simple. The past perfect would wrongly put the first one further back.
Make the sentence negative.
The new student had locked the door before the party started.
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The new student hadn't locked the door before the party started.
Negative: hadn’t (had not) + past participle, for every subject. The new student hadn't locked the door before the party started.
Past perfect or past simple?
By the time the meeting started, my flatmates _____ (choose) a present.
Show answer
By the time the meeting started, my flatmates had chosen a present.
“By the time the meeting started” is a past moment; the action was already complete before it, so use the past perfect (had + participle).
Is this sentence correct?
Omar and Adam had gone out by midday.
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Omar and Adam had gone out by midday.
Yes, it’s correct. “go” is irregular: go – went – gone. After had, use the past participle (gone).
Write the verb in the past perfect.
My little sister _____ (go) home by lunchtime.
Show answer
My little sister had gone home by lunchtime.
Past perfect: had + past participle — the same for every subject. It shows an action completed before another moment in the past. “go” is irregular: go – went – gone. After had, use the past participle (gone).
Choose the right word.
My flatmate _____ prepared the room before the shop opened.
Show answer
My flatmate had prepared the room before the shop opened.
Past perfect: had + past participle — the same for every subject. It shows an action completed before another moment in the past. “before the shop opened” is a moment in the past, so use had, not have/has.