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Past Perfect - Use

  

The German Past Perfect is a tense which is never used alone but always refers to a statement in the Simple Past or Present Perfect. This tense is not used very often.

You use this tense for:

         
1. actions which happened before a certain point in time in the Simple Past or Present Perfect
    Example:   Er war müde, weil er viel gearbeitet hatte.
    Phonetic Script:   [e:ɐ va:ɐ 'my:də, vail e:ɐ fi:l gə'ʔarbaitət 'hatə]
    English:   He was tired because he had worked much.
    Literally:   He was tired because he much worked had.
   
2. states or conditions before a certain point in time in the Simple Past or Present Perfect
    Example:   Sie sah schlecht aus, denn sie war lange krank gewesen.
    Phonetic Script:   [zi: za: ʃlɛçt aus, dɛn zi: va:ɐ 'laŋə kraŋk gə've:zən]
    English:   She looked bad because she had been ill for long.
    Literally:   She looked bad because she had long ill been.