Past perfect

(Photograph from Wix)

So, how did you get through immigration so quickly?

When answering this type of question about a past reason, the past perfect really shines.  It makes the order of events clear for the listener.   For example, “I went through immigration quickly.  I had already gotten my visa.”  Did you spot the past perfect in the second sentence?  You will remember it uses “had” and the past participle of the main verb, in this case “gotten”.  In this situation, even though [get] is second in the sentence, the order is (1st) get a visa, (2nd) go through immigration.  It is the “had gotten” that makes this clear. Without the past perfect, if I had said, “ I went through immigration quickly.  I got my visa.”, the order of events would be reversed as in (1st) go through immigration, and (2nd) get my visa - a completely different story.

So, my hint for using past perfect tense is that when you are talking about the past, and you want to talk about something earlier (an experience, reason, or cause), to reverse the direction of time, you should add “had” and change the verb to its past participle. 

Otherwise, the simple past will do (will be enough).

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