Study the following example situation.
- I went to a party last night. Alex went to the party, too. When I arrived at the party, he wasn't there. He had gone home.
The forms of the past perfect tense
- I / he / etc.had (= I'd / he'd / etc.) gone; I / he / etc. had not (= I hadn't / he hadn't / etc.) gone.
The use of the past perfect tense is to say something that had happened in the past, and the past perfect tense is the past of the present perfect tense.
- When Tom got home, he found that someone had broken into his house.
- Jane didn't want to see the film because she had seen it three times.