The Past Perfect Tense

The perfect tense can leave many baffled. When do you actually use it? Why is it used instead of the present tense (in the case of present perfect tense) or the past tense (in the case of the past perfect tense)?

In the first instance, let us narrow the focus to just one, namely the past perfect tense and attempt to gain a better understanding of it before going into other kinds of perfect tenses.

Firstly, we must remember that the past perfect tense belongs to the family of `tenses'; hence, we are looking at time-frame. Allow me to go over a couple of reasons for using the past perfect tense.

Now take a look at the following exercise and attempt to explain why the past perfect tense is used in each of the cases.

I had not felt like stepping outdoors for several days now.  The air even smelt of the burning that was taking place thousands of miles away in the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Kalimantan. This indiscriminate burning had gone on for too long, I thought to myself at that time.

Then, the heavens parted and the beautiful rain poured down in torrents.  I sighed in relief.  Indeed, it was a welcomed respite from the hazy conditions that we had been experiencing for the last few days. When it stopped raining, I walked out for a stroll.  I wanted to breathe in the air that was fresher than it had been previously.

Suggested explanations, to cross-reference with those that you may have come up with, will be offered soon.