Past Perfect

Past Perfect[chapterheader]

What is it?

The Past Perfect Tense of a verb is used to refer to events that happened at some point in the past with a reference point to the past, eg: she had bought her ticket (and she went to spain).

The Rule

The past tense of have plus the Past Participle of the verb:

'havde' [past participle]

Infinitive	Present	Past	Present Perfect	Past Perfect	EN
at bo	bor	boede	har boet	havde boet	had lived	gramto live somewhere, e.g. 'I live in a house'
at leve	lever	levede	har levet	havde levet	had lived	gramto be alive
at spise	spiser	spiste	har spist	havde spist	had eaten
at købe	køber	købte	har købt	havde købt	had bought
at have	har	havde	har haft	havde haft	had had
at hedde	hedder	hed	har heddet	havde heddet	had been called	gramno direct equivalent verb in English
at sove	sover	sov	har sovet	havde sovet	had slept
at løbe	løber	løb	har løbet	havde løbet	had run
at synge	synger	sang	har sunget	havde sunget	had sung
at drikke	drikker	drak	har drukket	havde drukket	had drunk
at være	er	var	har været	havde været	had been
at se	ser	så	har set	havde set	had seen
at gå	går	gik	har gået	havde gået	had gone

See more verbs

Examples

Da				En
			Han havde spist et æble og nu var han mætHe had eaten an apple and now he was full
			De havde boet i huset i fire år, da de solgte detThe had lived in the house for four years when they sold it