IELTS Grammar | Unit 4: Past Tenses 2 | Past Perfect Simple Past Perfect Continuous

We have already learnt about the Past Tenses 1 in the unit 2, and now we are going to learn the Past Tenses 2.

Just in case missing the Past Tenses 1, you can read more at Unit 2.

A. Context Listening

1. You will hear a woman giving a talk on the famous composer, Mozart. Before you listen match the words (1-10) with the correct meanings (a-j).

2. Now listen and complete the notes below.

Name: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Date of birth: 1 …………………….

Number of serviving brothers and sisters: 2 …………………….

Profession of father: 3 …………………….

Wrote first composition before the age of: 4 …………………….

Taught self to play: 5 …………………….

3. Listen to the tex again and fill in the gaps.

1. However, when Mozart ………. five of his siblings ………. In infancy or early childhood.
2. Mozart’s father, Leopold, ………. a composer, and his grandfather ………. a musician.
3. In just 30 minutes Mozart ………. the piece of music, which his father ………. into Nannerl’s notebook.
4. By the time he ………. Six, the little boy ………. a composition of his own.
5. They ………. to Vienna and ………. sensational reports of Mozart’s talent.
6. His family ………. richer than they ………. before.

For each sentence underline which event happened first.

4. Look at your answer to Exercise 3 event happened these questions.

1 Which tense is used in sentence 5 to show that the events took place in chronological order? …………………
2 Which tense is used in the other sentences to show that the second event the speaker mentioned actually happened first? …………………

B. Grammar

1. Past perfect simple

We use the past perfect simple

+ when we are talking about the past and want to mention something that happened earlier:

His father was a composer and his grandfather had also been a musician. (Mozart’s grandfather was a musician and then later his father became a composer)

Sometimes we use words like just or already. Notice that these adverbs go between the auxiliary and the main verb:

By the time he was 17, Mozart’s reputation had already begun to spread through Europe.

• We use the past simple tense if the events are mentioned in chronological order:

His grandfather was a musician and his father was also a composer.

+ with words like when, as soon as, by the time, after to show the order of events:

When Mozart was born, five of his siblings had already died. (Mozart’s siblings died first, then Mozart was born)

• Notice the difference in meaning between these two sentences:

When I got home, my husband cooked dinner. (= I got home and then my husband cooked dinner)

+ to talk about an indefinite time before a particular point in the past, often with words like always, sometimes, never, before, by + fixed time:

His family were richer than they had ever been before. (= they were not as rich at any time before this point in the past)
By the time he was six, the little boy had written a composition of his own.

+ to report past events using reporting verbs (see Unit 15):

The man told me he had met my father a long time before.

2. Past perfect continuous

We use the past perfect continuous to focus on how long an activity continued or to focus on the activity itself:

Times were hard and the family had been struggling for some time. (to show how long)
Mozart’s sister was extremely gifted at the keyboard and she had been making excellent progress. (focus on the activity)

+ We cannot use the past perfect continuous to say how many times something happened:

I knew the way as I had visited her several times before. (not I knew the way as I had been visiting her several times before.)

+ State verbs (see Unit 1) do not generally have a continuous form.

After studying this lesson, you can do grammar exercises related to this unit Past Tenses 2 by visiting Unit 4: Grammar Exercises of Past Tenses 2