Əvvəlcə misallara baxaq:

Sarah went to a party last week. Paul went to the party too but they didn't see each other. Paul went home at 10.30 and Sarah arrived at 11 o'clock.

When Sarah arrived at the party, Paul wasn't there. He had gone home.

Keçmiş bitmiş zaman had fel (keçmiş bitmiş formada) şəklində düzəlir. Çox vaxt ondan vasitəli nitqdə istifadə olunur. Keçmiş bitmiş zamandan keçmişdə verilmiş hər hansı bir hadisədən daha əvvəl baş verən hadisəni izah etmək üçün istifadə edilir:

When Sarah arrived at the party, Paul had already gone home.
When we got home last night, we found that somebody had broken into the flat.
Karen didn't want to come to the cinema with us because she had already seen the film.
At first I thought I'd done the right thing, but I soon realised that I'd made a serious mistake.
The man sitting next to me on the plane was very nervous. He hadn't flown before. / He had never flown before.

Müqayisə edək:

Who is that woman? I've never seen her before. -- I didn't know who she was. I'd never seen her before. (= before tha: time)

We aren't hungry. We've just had lunch. -- We weren't hungry. We'd just had lunch.

The house is dirty. They haven't cleaned it for weeks. -- The house was dirty. They hadn't cleaned it for weeks.

'Was Tom at the party when you arrived?'   'No, he had already gone home.' -- 'Was Tom there when you arrived?'   'Yes, but he went home soon afterwards.'

Ann wasn't at home when I phoned. She was in London. -- Ann had just got home when I phoned. She had been in London.