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past perfect
past perfect
adjective
- denoting a tense of verbs used in relating past events where the action had already occurred at the time of the action of a main verb that is itself in a past tense. In English this is a compound tense formed with had plus the past participle
noun
- the past perfect tense
- a verb in this tense
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Word History and Origins
Origin of past perfect1
First recorded in 1885–90
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Compare Meanings
How does past perfect compare to similar and commonly confused words? Explore the most common comparisons:
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Example Sentences
She is just past-perfect as a chaperone and she said that she thought a party of four girls would be ideal.
From Project Gutenberg
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