The Past Perfect Simple

We use the past perfect when there are 2 actions in the past. The first action is the past perfect and the second action is the past simple.

I had had breakfast before I went to work.
He had already finished school by the time he was 16.
We went to Wembley last night. We had never been there before.

Look at the construction:

Subject	had	past participle
I	had	finished	football when you called.
We	had	drunk	all the coke before they arrived.
They	had	gone	to bed by the time she got home.

The past perfect is more commonly used when we write. If you are telling a story, you are already in the past and so to talk about everything which happened before we should use the past perfect.

Look at the question form:

Question word	Auxiliary	Subject	Verb
	Had	you	seen	“Dances with Wolves” before?
	Had	you	ever	been to Scotland before last week?
Where	had	you	ever	lived before you moved here?