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Unlike the present perfect, the past perfect can readily be used with an adverb specifying a past time frame for the occurrence. For example, it is incorrect to say * I have done it last Friday (the use of last Friday , specifying the past time, would entail the use of the simple past , I did it , rather than the present perfect).
Past event. The perfect most frequently narrates an event in the past. The usual translation is the simple English past tense with '-ed' or the equivalent: vēnī, vīdī, vīcī (Caesar) [100] 'I came, I saw, I conquered' ibī M. Marcellum convēni eumque diem ibī cōnsūmpsī (Servius to Cicero) [101]
The past perfect progressive (sometimes referred to as the past perfect continuous) combines had (the simple past of have) with been (the past participle of be) and the present participle of the main verb: You had been waiting. It is used to refer to an ongoing action that continued up to the past time of reference.
The present auxiliary implies that they are in some way present (alive), even when the action denoted is completed (perfect) or partially completed (progressive perfect).) Aspects of the past tense: Past simple (not progressive, not perfect): "I ate" Past progressive (progressive, not perfect): "I was eating"
The implications of the present perfect (that something occurred prior to the present moment) are similar to those of the simple past. The simple past is generally used when the occurrence has a specific past time frame – either explicitly stated (I wrote a book in 1995; the water boiled a minute ago), or implied by the context (for example ...
Common tenses of this type are the pluperfect and the future perfect. These both place the situation in the past relative to the reference point (they are anterior tenses), but in addition they place the reference point in the past and in the future, respectively, relative to the time of speaking. For example, "John had left" implies that the ...
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The simple past is often close in meaning to the present perfect. The simple past is used when the event is conceived as occurring at a particular time in the past, or during a period that ended in the past (i.e. it does not last up until the present time).