Had (past perfect)

Sometimes we talk about two things that both happened in the past, one before the other. On page 125 of your book, Santoor, there is this sentence: Ananya had completed her schooling before she joined the factory. Two things happened. First, Ananya completed her schooling. Second, she joined the factory.

For the action that happened FIRST, we use had + the past form of the verb: had completed, had finished, had ended. This is called the past perfect. For the action that happened SECOND, we use the simple past: joined, reached, rang. So the pattern is: subject + had + past form of the verb. (Look for the word 'had', as all the book's examples show.)

Here is the book's example: The crowd had dispersed when we reached the market. 'Had dispersed' is the first action: the crowd went away first. 'Reached the market' is the second action: we got there after they had gone.

Be careful! The first action is found by its MEANING, not by where it comes in the sentence. When we reached the cinema hall, the movie had ended. 'Reached' comes first in the sentence, but the movie ended first, so we missed it. The action with 'had' is always the one that happened first.

More from the book: Shivangi had finished the portrait when I called her (finishing came first). Samar had set the table when the phone rang (setting the table came first).