How to Use the Past Perfect Tense to Achieve a Band 7+ on IELTS

The past perfect tense is a valuable tool to have in your grammatical arsenal for the IELTS exam. While not as common as other past tenses, like the simple past, demonstrating mastery of the past perfect can help you achieve a higher band score. It allows you to express complex timelines and demonstrate a nuanced understanding of English grammar.

Consider these examples:

• By the time I arrived at the cinema, the movie had already started. (This sentence shows that the movie starting happened before my arrival, both events in the past.)
• She explained that she had lived in Italy before moving to London. (Here, we understand the speaker lived in Italy in the past, and this was before another past action – moving to London.)
• Although he had never visited the city, he felt strangely at home. (This sentence highlights a past experience that continued up to another point in the past – feeling at home.)

As you can see, the past perfect is used to discuss actions that happened before other actions in the past.

Understanding the Past Perfect

The past perfect is crucial for clarifying the order of events when you’re talking about the past, especially in more complex narratives. It’s frequently used in writing tasks, particularly in IELTS Writing Task 1 when describing historical events or processes, or in Task 2 when providing personal anecdotes or hypothetical situations. It might not appear as frequently in the speaking section, but knowing how to use it correctly can significantly boost your fluency and grammatical range.

Past Perfect: Form and Function

Form

The past perfect tense is formed using the following structure:

had + past participle

For example:

• I had eaten
• They had gone
• She had studied

Function

The past perfect is used to describe:

1. An action completed before another action in the past.

   • I had finished my homework before I watched TV.

2. A state or situation that existed before a specific time in the past.

   • By 1990, she had already become a successful businesswoman.

3. An action that happened before a specific time in the past, often indicated by time expressions like “by,” “before,” “when,” etc.

   • They had never seen such a beautiful sunset before they visited Santorini.

Past Perfect Timeline

Using the Past Perfect in IELTS

Let’s see how you can utilize the past perfect tense effectively in different sections of the IELTS exam.

Writing

• Task 1: When presenting a historical overview or describing a process in the past, the past perfect helps to establish clear chronological order:

  • Before the invention of the internet, people had relied heavily on traditional postal services for communication. (This clearly shows the reliance on postal services existed before the internet.)

• Task 2: When using personal experiences to illustrate a point in your essay, the past perfect can add depth and flow to your narrative:

  • Having lived in a multicultural society had taught me the importance of tolerance and understanding. (This sentence emphasizes how the experience of living in a multicultural society occurred before the writer learned the values of tolerance and understanding.)

Speaking

While less common in speaking, the past perfect can be used effectively in Part 2 when describing past experiences or hypothetical situations in Part 3.

• Part 2: Before traveling to Japan, I had always wanted to experience its unique culture. (This demonstrates a long-held desire that existed prior to the speaker’s travel.)

• Part 3: If I had had the opportunity to study abroad, I would have chosen to go to France. (This clearly shows the speaker did not have the opportunity to study abroad, and a hypothetical desire linked to that past situation.)

Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

1. Overusing the Past Perfect: A common mistake is using the past perfect even when the simple past tense suffices. Remember, use the past perfect only when it’s essential to clarify the order of past events.

   Incorrect: I had gone to the store and bought some milk.
   Correct: I went to the store and bought some milk.

2. Incorrect Sequence of Tenses: Ensure the verbs in your sentences follow a logical order. The past perfect should always precede the simple past when describing consecutive events.

   Incorrect: When I arrived at the party, everyone left.
   Correct: When I arrived at the party, everyone had already left.

3. Confusing Past Perfect with Past Perfect Continuous: While both tenses deal with completed actions in the past, remember that the past perfect continuous emphasizes the duration of an action.

   Incorrect: He had lived in Spain before moving to Mexico. (If we want to emphasize the duration of living in Spain, we should use the past perfect continuous)
   Correct: He had been living in Spain for 10 years before moving to Mexico.

Tips for Mastering the Past Perfect

• Practice identifying the correct tense: Regularly complete grammar exercises focusing on the past perfect and other past tenses. You can find many practice exercises online and in IELTS preparation books.
• Pay attention to time expressions: Become familiar with common time expressions used with the past perfect like “by the time,” “prior to,” “after,” “before,” and “never… before.” These often signal the need for the past perfect.
• Read and listen actively: Engage with English-language materials like books, articles, movies, and podcasts. Pay attention to how native speakers use the past perfect in different contexts.
• Use it in your own writing and speaking: Actively incorporate the past perfect into your practice essays and speaking responses. This will help solidify your understanding and improve your fluency.

By understanding its form, function, and common errors, you can confidently use the past perfect tense to construct sophisticated sentences, demonstrating your advanced grammatical range and boosting your IELTS band score.