Dialogue.
Munuswamy : I’m afraid that the rains that had failed us for three years in succession might fail us this year too … hm!
Mannarsamy : Don’t be so pessimistic Munnu. We had been receiving copious rainfall all these years. Finally we had to incur the wrath of the rain god because we had been senselessly wasting water.
Munuswamy : I understand Mannu. But now that we have realised our folly and have made enough amends, the rains may come anytime now. If it rains well, next year by this month I shall have performed the marriage of my children, Uppili and Saroja.
Mannarsamy : And I shall have completed the concrete building for the high school in our village.
Munuswamy : Oh! By next year, the school shall have been existing here for twenty years!
…………..
In the conversation given above we saw four types of tense forms. Past perfect, past perfect continuous, future perfect and the future perfect continuous. Now let’s see them one by one.
a. Past perfect tense : had + past participle
The past perfect tense expresses an action in the past that was completed before another action in the past.
e.g.
a. 1. When we arrived at the central railway station, the Brindavan express had already left.
2. They arrived at the bus station after the bus had left.
b. As a past supposition which does not in fact occur.
e.g. If I had written the test I would have passed.
c. In the indirect form of the present perfect.
e.g. She asked her if she had done her work.
d. Sometimes, the time expression relating to its past may be implied.
e.g. A holiday was declared because a minister had died.
e. In negatives, there is a helping verb “had” which helps to form negatives.
e.g. The bus hadn’t yet arrived, when we reached the bus station.
Task: Fill in the blanks with past perfect form of the verbs given in brackets.
1. When I went out again, the rain ............ (stop).
2. The crowd ............ (start) to leave even before the speaker began her speech.
3. The Nurse ............... (leave) by the time the doctor arrived.
4. He refused to go till he ................ (see) the filmstar.
5. By the time I woke up from my bed the sun .......... (rise) above the horizon.
6. When we reached the stadium the match ........... (begin) already.
b. Past perfect continuous : had + been + v-ing
a. This tense is used to show that a certain action began before
a certain point in the past and continued upto the time.
e.g. 1. The telephone had been ringing for five minutes before it was answered.
2. John had been doing his home work for two hours when suddenly the lights went out.
b. A repeated action can sometimes be expressed by past perfect continuous.
e.g. She had been trying for an hour to get him on the phone.
Task: Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verbs given in the brackets.
1. John .............. (read) for five hours before he went to bed.
2. Nirmala ........... (wait) for two hours for her friend at Egmore Station before her friend came to pick her up.
3. Dimple Maria ........... (suffer) from pneumonia for more than two months last year.
4. She ............ (work) from morning till night, naturally she was tired.
5. After they ............. (play) for an hour they stopped to take some rest.
6. He ........ (play) for the country for 15 years and finally the board retired him.
c. Future perfect tense: shall / will have + past participle e.g. shall have gone / will have gone
Future perfect tense refers to an action which will be completed before a point of time in the future.
e.g. 1. By the end of next month, she will have lived in this beautiful village for twenty years.
2. The new building will have been completed before the reopening of the school.
The future perfect is used with time expression introduced by ‘before’, ‘at’, ‘by’, ‘on’ etc.
e.g. She hopes she will have mastered all the lessons by the time the examination begins.
Task: Fill in the blanks in the following sentences with future perfect form.
1. He hopes they .............. (repair) the house by next month.
2. She surely .......... (reach) New York by now.
3. She ......... (grow) taller since we saw her three years ago.
4. I’ll return the book to you tomorrow for I ...... (finish) reading it by then.
5. At the end of this year I ........ (be) a student of this school for 8 years.
6. In 2010 our school ............. (celebrate) its centenary.
d. Future perfect continuous tense: shall / will have + been + v-ing
The future perfect continuous is used to stress the duration of an action that takes place before another future event.
a. When the action is continuous
e.g. I shall have been living in this house for 15 years by next May.
b. When the action is expressed as a continuous action
e.g. By the end of next year he will have been teaching English for 25 years.
Note: This type of future perfect continuous is rare in speech or writing. But it exists in grammar.
Munuswamy : I’m afraid that the rains that had failed us for three years in succession might fail us this year too … hm!
Mannarsamy : Don’t be so pessimistic Munnu. We had been receiving copious rainfall all these years. Finally we had to incur the wrath of the rain god because we had been senselessly wasting water.
Munuswamy : I understand Mannu. But now that we have realised our folly and have made enough amends, the rains may come anytime now. If it rains well, next year by this month I shall have performed the marriage of my children, Uppili and Saroja.
Mannarsamy : And I shall have completed the concrete building for the high school in our village.
Munuswamy : Oh! By next year, the school shall have been existing here for twenty years!
…………..
In the conversation given above we saw four types of tense forms. Past perfect, past perfect continuous, future perfect and the future perfect continuous. Now let’s see them one by one.
a. Past perfect tense : had + past participle
The past perfect tense expresses an action in the past that was completed before another action in the past.
e.g.
a. 1. When we arrived at the central railway station, the Brindavan express had already left.
2. They arrived at the bus station after the bus had left.
b. As a past supposition which does not in fact occur.
e.g. If I had written the test I would have passed.
c. In the indirect form of the present perfect.
e.g. She asked her if she had done her work.
d. Sometimes, the time expression relating to its past may be implied.
e.g. A holiday was declared because a minister had died.
e. In negatives, there is a helping verb “had” which helps to form negatives.
e.g. The bus hadn’t yet arrived, when we reached the bus station.
Task: Fill in the blanks with past perfect form of the verbs given in brackets.
1. When I went out again, the rain ............ (stop).
2. The crowd ............ (start) to leave even before the speaker began her speech.
3. The Nurse ............... (leave) by the time the doctor arrived.
4. He refused to go till he ................ (see) the filmstar.
5. By the time I woke up from my bed the sun .......... (rise) above the horizon.
6. When we reached the stadium the match ........... (begin) already.
b. Past perfect continuous : had + been + v-ing
a. This tense is used to show that a certain action began before
a certain point in the past and continued upto the time.
e.g. 1. The telephone had been ringing for five minutes before it was answered.
2. John had been doing his home work for two hours when suddenly the lights went out.
b. A repeated action can sometimes be expressed by past perfect continuous.
e.g. She had been trying for an hour to get him on the phone.
Task: Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the verbs given in the brackets.
1. John .............. (read) for five hours before he went to bed.
2. Nirmala ........... (wait) for two hours for her friend at Egmore Station before her friend came to pick her up.
3. Dimple Maria ........... (suffer) from pneumonia for more than two months last year.
4. She ............ (work) from morning till night, naturally she was tired.
5. After they ............. (play) for an hour they stopped to take some rest.
6. He ........ (play) for the country for 15 years and finally the board retired him.
c. Future perfect tense: shall / will have + past participle e.g. shall have gone / will have gone
Future perfect tense refers to an action which will be completed before a point of time in the future.
e.g. 1. By the end of next month, she will have lived in this beautiful village for twenty years.
2. The new building will have been completed before the reopening of the school.
The future perfect is used with time expression introduced by ‘before’, ‘at’, ‘by’, ‘on’ etc.
e.g. She hopes she will have mastered all the lessons by the time the examination begins.
Task: Fill in the blanks in the following sentences with future perfect form.
1. He hopes they .............. (repair) the house by next month.
2. She surely .......... (reach) New York by now.
3. She ......... (grow) taller since we saw her three years ago.
4. I’ll return the book to you tomorrow for I ...... (finish) reading it by then.
5. At the end of this year I ........ (be) a student of this school for 8 years.
6. In 2010 our school ............. (celebrate) its centenary.
d. Future perfect continuous tense: shall / will have + been + v-ing
The future perfect continuous is used to stress the duration of an action that takes place before another future event.
a. When the action is continuous
e.g. I shall have been living in this house for 15 years by next May.
b. When the action is expressed as a continuous action
e.g. By the end of next year he will have been teaching English for 25 years.
Note: This type of future perfect continuous is rare in speech or writing. But it exists in grammar.
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