The past perfect tense

Sometimes a sentence has two past actions, and the reader needs to know which came first. English has a tense for that: the past perfect.

From the story: "It was the fellow who had recently begun sweeping the compounds." Two pasts: he began sweeping (earlier), and they recognised him (later).

The earlier action takes the past perfect: had + V3 (past participle): had begun, had vanished, had cooled down. The later action stays in the simple past: was, found, reappeared.

The story does both at once: "Anand had vanished by this time and reappeared only after dinner when Papa had cooled down." Vanishing came first (had), reappearing later (simple past), and cooling down came before reappearing (had again).

The rule: the older action gets had; the newer one doesn't. Work out which happened first, and the tenses follow!

Time words help: before, after, by the time, when.

• "Rohan had packed his suitcase before he left for the airport."
• "By the time we reached the station, the train had already left."

More: "After Rohan had finished his homework, he decided to go for a walk. He left the house and realised he had forgotten his keys." (He forgot first, then realised, so forgotten gets had.) The tense is what tells the reader the order!