The Past Perfect is a useful tense to master for describing change in Academic Writing Task 1, and storytelling in both GT Writing Task 1 and Speaking Part 2.
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is it ok to use past perfect with (during).
for example, durning 2012, the sale had increased.
Hi Harpreet.
Not in this example because the action happens at the same time as the year – ‘In 2012, sales increased’.
Past Perfect is when you have two different time periods or actions, and one happened before the other e.g. By 2021, sales had increased’.
The preposition ‘by’ usually signals a time period BEFORE the date. I hope that helps.
hello mam…!!!
I’m Kavita
I can’t understand the difference between by and in, when using past perfect ..please help me.
Hi Kavita! Use ‘in’ when the timeframe is in ONE year e.g. I left home in 2000. Use ‘by’ to talk about the time leading up to a year e.g By 2010 I had moved house 10 times.
Kavita you can find the examples from our YouTube lesson here to help you see the difference:
https://youtu.be/GeZKogKIJ4Q
I first moved house in 1990.
By 2019 I had moved house 15 times.
In 2000 Nouman bought his first car.
By 2019 he had bought 3 cars.
Saurabh joined the company in 2000.
By 2015 he had been promoted 4 times.
In 2011 Amira went to Singapore.
She had never been to Singapore before.
In 2000 Prakash found his first job.
By 2017 he had done 5 different jobs.