Past perfect questions for conversation
We use the past perfect tense to talk about things that have happened in the past at a certain time or before another event took place. Past perfect questions are used to find out about these completed events and situations. This page has some useful queries for English learners to practice this tense in an interesting way.
To get more out of this speaking exercise, try to ask follow-up questions wherever possible and don’t allow responses to end with simply yes or no answers.
The past perfect questions are –
1 – Had you learned to read many words before you started going to school?
2 – What is something that you wish you had done last year and why?
3 – Where had you traveled to before you stopped living with your parents?
4 – What had your mother and father been doing before they got married?
5 – How had people been communicating before the invention of mobile phones?
6 – What had you eaten before you went to sleep last night? What had you drunk?
7 – Had you decided what kind of job you wanted before you left school or university?
8 – What do you wish you hadn’t done when you were younger? Why not?
9 – Had you been working somewhere else before you got the job you have now?
10- What had you dreamed about doing in life when you were a child?
11- Had someone cooked you dinner when you got home last night?
12- Had you already made plans before your last holiday began?
13- Who had become your best friend before you started high school?
14- Had you learned how to drive a car or motorcycle by the time you were 17 years old?
15- Do you wish you had lived in another city or country when you grew up? Where?
16- Had you bought any presents a week before last Christmas day?
17- What had your father been doing the last time that you spoke to him?
18- Had you owned a pet dog, cat, or bird by the time you were 12? Talk about it.
19- What had you eaten the last time you had a stomachache?
20- Had it been raining outside before you came into this room?
21- Had you learned how to swim before the first time you went to the beach?
22- What had your mother taught to you cook before you left home?
23- Had you lived somewhere else before you lived where you are now?
24- What hobbies had your friends been doing when you first met them?
25- Had you known about the movie you watched before you last went to the cinema?
