TOEFL Writing Part 1: Simple Past and Past Perfect (Intermediate)
Simple Past vs Past Perfect
One common use of the past perfect tense is to clarify the order of two past events within the same sentence. In written English, when two past actions are mentioned, the event that happened earlier is often expressed in the past perfect so that the time relationship is clear.
Let’s see an example of this grammar.
I was shocked by the fact that I had lost my wallet.
This sentence refers to two different events. First, the speaker lost their wallet. Later, they realized what had happened and felt shocked. Because the loss occurred before the emotional reaction, “had lost” is written in the past perfect. This tense signals that the wallet was already lost at the moment the speaker felt shocked.
Note that in everyday conversation, however, speakers don’t always have to make this distinction.
Practice Questions
Question 1
Explanation
The first step is to create a meaningful combination of a subject and a verb that forms a clause. Keep in mind that only a noun, a noun phrase, or a gerund can function as the subject of a sentence.
In the word bank, the only noun available is “sources,” which naturally works with the verb “emerged.” This gives us the basic clause:
sources emerged
There are also two adjectives, “new” and “primary.” Both modify the noun “sources” and are placed before it in the order “new primary.“ As a result, the clause becomes as follows:
new primary sources emerged
Next, consider the time relationship between the events mentioned in the sentence. Here, two events are involved:
- The conclusion changed
- new primary sources emerged
The key question is which event happened first.
In this case, it is logical to think that the new sources appear first, and the conclusion is revised afterward. This order makes sense because conclusions are typically updated in response to new evidence. If we reverse the order and say that the sources emerged after the conclusion had already changed, the situation no longer sounds realistic.
Because the discovery of the new sources occurred earlier, it should be expressed using the past perfect tense. This gives us the clause:
new primary sources had emerged.
At this point, we have two complete clauses:
- The conclusion changed
- New primary sources had emerged
To connect these two clauses, we need a conjunction. In the word bank, the only available option is “because,” so we use it to show the cause-and-effect relationship. The completed sentence is:
The conclusion changed because new primary sources had emerged.
Question 2
Explanation
By examining the word bank, you can identify two key elements: the conjunction “after” and the past perfect form “had been”. These two items indicate that one event occurred earlier than another, and that the two events should be described in separate clauses connected by “after”.
With that in mind, let’s begin by constructing the first clause, which starts with “The recall”.
In the word bank, three verb options are available: “detected”, “announced”, and a passive construction (“was + verb”). Because “the recall” refers to an inanimate event, it can’t actively detect or announce anything. This means that a passive construction is required.
This leaves us with two possible clauses:
- The recall was announced
- The recall was detected
Of these two, only the first forms a natural and meaningful sentence. A recall is something that is announced, not detected. The below is the appropriate clause formation:
The recall was announced.
Next, we need to focus on the other clause that follows the initial one.
As before, the best place to start is by forming a clear subject–verb combination. Looking at the word bank, we find only one suitable noun and verb for this clause:
- Noun: “defects”
- Verb: “had been detected”
We also have the adjective “manufacturing”, which modifies the noun “defects”. Putting these elements together gives us the following clause:
Manufacturing defects had been detected.
At this point, both clauses are complete. We can now connect them using the conjunction “after” to show the time relationship between the two events:
The recall was announced after manufacturing defects had been detected.
Question 3
Explanation
Looking at the word bank, the first word that matters is “had”. This auxiliary verb tells us that the sentence needs a past perfect structure. This is used when one situation existed before another past event. Once “had” is identified, the next step is to find a verb that can follow it. Among the options, only “wanted” works grammatically, so these two words must stay together as “had wanted”.
The verb “want” requires an infinitive, which means “to” must come next. The base verb “review” then follows “to”, forming “wanted to review”. The pronoun “it” functions as the object of “review”, so it must be placed immediately after the verb.
Next, focus on the time expression. The word “before” introduces a time relationship, and “attending” naturally follows it as a gerund. The phrase is completed by “the meeting.”
Following these grammatical constraints leads to the correct sentence:
She had wanted to review it before attending the meeting.
