Unit 15. Past perfect ( I had done )

The past perfect simple is had + past participle (gone/seen/finished etc..). 

Sometimes we talk about something that happened in the past

• Sarah arrived at the party

This is the starting point of the story. Then, if we want to talk about things that happened before this time, we use the past perfect:

• When Sarah arrived at the party, Paul had already gone home.

Some more example:

• When we got home last night, we found that somebody had broken into the flat.
• Karen didn't want to come to the cinema with us because she had already seen the film.

Had done (past perfect) is the past of have done (present perfect)

present perfect - Who is that woman? I've never seen her before. - We aren't hungry. We've just had lunch.

past perfect - I didn't know whe she was. I'd never seen her before. - We weren't hungry. We'd just had lunck.