Past Perfect Lesson Plan for Teachers [Updated 2025]

The past perfect simple is a complex verb tense that often intimidates new English learners. Normally, students don’t see this tense until they reach intermediate levels of any given ESL course. However, it’s used frequently in everyday life. In this post, I’ll talk about the past perfect simple, when it’s used, and when teachers should start teaching it. Also, I’ll show you a simple, easy-to-follow past perfect lesson plan that teachers can use.

Download this free, ready-to-teach lesson plan here: 

What is the past perfect tense?

In English, the past perfect tense is used to describe the relationship between two actions that happened in the past. Using had + past participle makes the order of the two events clear. For example, one can say, “I had studied English before I moved to Australia”. This sentence is clear and concise. As well, one can see the past perfect contained in the if clause in the third conditional. Ultimately, the past perfect is used in complex sentences, which may be why new English learners are so intimidated by it. Don’t worry, with practice your students will be confident expressing their ideas using the past perfect.

More about this past perfect lesson plan

This lesson plan is an introductory lesson plan to the past perfect tense. In it, teachers will find clear explanations and students will be given plenty of opportunities to practice. Teachers can expect to assign gap-fill, sentence matching and sentence starter exercises. Also, the lesson begins with simple explanations of the tense and gets progressively more challenging, allowing students to test their knowledge of new concepts.

Before teaching the past perfect tense, make sure your students are comfortable with past participles. Past participles can be a real challenge for ESL students, so consider reviewing them. With this, learning the past perfect doesn’t have to be scary, as long as students have the correct tools in their kit to do so. 

Don’t forget about our free lessons!

If you enjoyed these ESL lesson plan downloads, there are 150+ more available here. We designed these lesson plans to help save you time.

We know teaching English learners can be tricky. Therefore, we also offer a wide selection of other resources, training, and content to help you succeed. You can sign up for a free account to access more lesson plans and resources!