Foscari - Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali, Informatica e Statistica

I lost my keys when I went to the casino.
2 Certain lime expressions are typically associated with the past perfect. They are used when one
completed action happened before another. e.g. by, by the time that, when, as soon as, before,
after
The meeting had already started when I arrived.
After he had discussed the current projects he went on to talk about future plans.
Underline the correct tense in italics on the basis of the information in the sentence below.
1 I remembered that Jo worked / had worked for IBM.
(Jo doesn't work for IBM now.)
2 I realized the boss was / had been in the next room.
(I could hear the boss's voice.)
3 They asked me if I came / had come from Beijing.
(They wanted to know about my journey.)
4 When her husband left / had left for work she phoned her mother.
(She often phoned her mother.)
Put the verbs in italics into the past simple, past perfect, or past continuous. In some cases both
forms are possible.
It be the first time that three friends find a job. They work on a building site, building a wall. After they
had been there for a few hours the foreman come to see them. He was surprised to find one of them
already build a complete wall, while the other two stand doing nothing. They said they not work
because they were both lamp posts. The foreman sack the two men immediately. As soon as his two
friends had gone home, the man digging the hole also stop work! It's OK: said the foreman I haven't
sacked you. You work very well, so carry on: The man reply: 'That's all very well saying I can keep my
job, but how do you expect me to work in the dark?'
Exercise 1
Underline the correct words. This exercise includes examples of the past perfect, used to, the past
simple and past continuous.
1 While I looked / was looking for my keys, I suddenly remembered I left / had left them
at home.
2 In those days the unions used to / had used to go on strike whenever there was / was
being a problem.
3 After they were buying / had bought the company, they started / were starting to make
a lot of people redundant.
4 Jack used to have / was having a Mac, but then he used to change / changed to a PC.
5 I asked about my package in reception, but they said / were saying that it still hadn't
arrived / wasn't arriving.
6 I was sure that I used to lock / had locked the door to my office last night, but it
was / had been open this morning.
7 I’m sure that the winters used to be / had been colder when I was a child. I remember
that we used to walk / were walking to school in the snow every winter.
8 I had gone / went back to the restaurant to look for my umbrella, but found / was
finding that someone took / had taken it.
102