100 Example Sentences with Past Perfect Tense

The past perfect tense is used to indicate that a past action was completed before another past action. Here, you will find 100+ sentences with past perfect tense.

Sentences with Past Perfect Tense

The past perfect tense is used to describe actions in the past before something else happened. It is formed by using the auxiliary verb had and the past participle of the main verb.

Let’s see the examples!

1. I had eaten my breakfast when my sister came to my room.
2. By the time I got there, she had already left for work.
3. After she had finished her homework, she went out with her friends.
4. We had never been to Spain before.
5. They had lived in London for many years.
6. You had never seen such a beautiful garden before.
7. The train had left before I arrived at the station.
8. They had decided to wait until morning before calling the police.
9. She had already eaten lunch when I arrived at her house for dinner.
10. I had already finished my homework when you called.
11. I had never seen such an amazing movie before I watched Star Wars last night!
12. When I arrived at the party, most guests had already left.
13. We had eaten dinner before we went to the movie theater.
14. The teacher had finished correcting our papers by the time we got to class.
15. I had not been to the movies for many years when I saw that movie.
16. I hadn’t seen that movie before, but I wanted to see it again because it was so good.
17. He hadn’t played baseball since childhood until he joined his friend’s team this summer.
18. The restaurant had closed when we got to eat there last weekend!
19. My parents had lived in that house for almost 50 years when they decided to move into town so they could be closer to us.
20. I had never seen such a beautiful garden.
21. She had made me a nice cup of coffee.
22. You had told me about this movie before.
23. He had lost his dog in the park yesterday.
24. We had been to that restaurant before but didn’t like it.
25. They had just moved to this city last month.
26. She had lived in New York for two years before coming here.
27. We had already eaten dinner when you called last night.
28. I had already read this book before she gave it to me yesterday afternoon.
29. I had never seen such an amazing movie before.
30. She had already eaten dinner when I arrived at her house.
31. The movie had ended when the lights came back on in the theater where it was showing.
32. The train had left the station before I reached there.
33. I had never been to Paris before and always wanted to go there.
34. I had never seen you look so beautiful before.
35. We had not been here before, so we did not know where to go for dinner.
36. He had passed out by the time he reached home.
37. By the time our teacher arrived at school, all of us had left for home.
38. We had completed all our assignments before going to bed last night.
39. He had finished his homework before I arrived.
40. I had studied for two hours when he arrived at my house.
41. I had worked in a bank before I came to this company.
42. When she arrived at the airport, her plane had already taken off.
43. He had traveled to many countries by the time he was 25 years old.
44. We had taken breakfast before our guests arrived at 8 am.
45. We had waited for more than an hour when finally the bus arrived with our luggage still on board.
46. I had just arrived at the theater when the show started.
47. The storm had just passed when we went outside to enjoy the sunshine.
48. She had lived in that house for over 30 years before she sold it to move into an apartment in town.
49. I had never seen anything so beautiful, on TV or in a movie theater!
50. We had already eaten dinner before we went out dancing at the club last night.
51. He had taught English in China for five years before he decided to move back home to New York City.
52. I had phoned my friend before I left home.
53. The boys had played football before it started raining.
54. We had finished our work before they came to our office.
55. She had seen the new film before she went to the theatre with her friends.
56. We had lived in that house for two years when we decided to move again.
57. They had traveled all over Europe before they came back home to Australia again.
58. At that time, we didn’t realize what a great opportunity our parents had given us when they let us move out of their house and live on our own.
59. By the time I was in high school, I had already decided to become an architect because that’s what my dad did for a living, and it seemed like fun.
60. He had been to the grocery store when he got home from work.
61. The girls had been in the pool for an hour when their mom called them to dinner.
62. They had been married for 30 years before they decided to have children.
63. Carlos had lived in Mexico City for ten years when he finally moved back to Guadalajara last year.
64. The doctor had removed my appendix two weeks before I came down with appendicitis again this week.
65. I hadn’t made breakfast before he arrived.
66. They had left the restaurant before it closed.
67. I had been in Rome for two weeks when I decided to move.
68. I had seen this girl once, but I liked her voice.
69. I had just put my laptop on the table when it fell off.
70. He had lived in India for a long time, so he knew how to speak Hindi fluently.
71. My grandparents had already taken their test by the time I arrived.
72. She had worked as a waitress at a restaurant before she became an actress.
73. When I arrived home, my mother told me she had met my uncle on the bus.
74. My brother had left for work before sunrise, but he did not get up until 8:00 am because he forgot to set his alarm clock last night.
75. The teacher had taught the students how to prepare for the exam yesterday morning.
76. My parents had paid for my college education by the time I graduated high school in 1994.
77. The meeting had already ended when I reached the office.
78. I had already finished my assignment when my friends came over for help with their homework.
79. The baby had slept for two hours when the mother took him out for a walk in his stroller around the park near their house.
80. I had finished my homework before my mother came home from work.
81. We realized we had left our keys in the car when we got home from the movies.
82. By the time I got to work on Monday, I had already received emails from both of my bosses about what needed to be done for the week ahead.
83. The storm had passed by the time we woke up on Sunday morning, but there were still plenty of tree branches lying around in our yard after all the wind and rain we had experienced the night before.
84. When I reached my home at midnight last night, there were dozens of messages on my answering machine from friends who were worried about me because they had not heard from me for several days or weeks!
85. They went to dinner together at a restaurant near their house after they had done their homework and rested.
86. When we arrived home after visiting our grandparents’ house this morning, we found nobody because everybody had gone out elsewhere!
87. We had already finished our homework when they arrived home late last night because they were stuck in traffic due to an accident on the highway near their house.
88. The bus driver hadn’t picked up any passengers at the last stop because he was waiting for more people to come out of the building where they lived.
89. He had read all the books in his collection before he had started to write his first novel.
90. We had lived in this city for almost twenty years before moving to another one.
91. She had not seen her husband for three years when he returned home.
92. We had not met our cousins since they moved to another town when we were children, but that summer, we saw them again, and they invited us over for dinner several times during the next few weeks.
93. Sam had spent most of his life working as an accountant until he decided to quit his job and become a teacher; he taught at the university until he retired last year.
94. The movie had started by the time we got to the theater, so we decided not to go in after all because we were too tired to stay up late on a weeknight anyway.
95. When he went back into his room after dinner last night, he saw that someone had broken into his closet and stolen all his money from his wallet, which had been lying on top of his dresser where he always kept it before going out for the evening; but since he didn’t notice that anything else was missing.
96. We had only been married for a few months when my father died suddenly of a heart attack.
97. My mother had always wanted to return to her hometown after she retired from teaching school, so we all moved back together when she retired at age 60 and never looked back again after that day!
98. They had already completed their work by the time he showed up at work on Monday morning, so he had no choice but to go home again without having done anything important that day!
99. John’s parents had owned their own home before he was born, so he didn’t inherit anything from them when they died three years ago at the age of seventy-two and sixty-four, respectively.
100. The train had arrived at the station 20 minutes before it was due to depart, so passengers could get on board in plenty of time and have a cup of coffee before departure time.
101. We had already eaten dinner when my mother came home from work late at night, so she made something quick and easy: spaghetti with tomato sauce and garlic bread.
102. It was raining heavily when I reached home yesterday afternoon, but by the time I woke up this morning, it had stopped raining completely, and the sun was shining brightly in the sky.
103. They were very disappointed when they learned that their team had lost the match yesterday evening, but they cheered up again when they found out that their team had won two matches out of three yesterday afternoon!

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More to Read

• Verb Tenses
• Tenses Chart
• Past Perfect Worksheet