done it last Friday (the use of last Friday, specifying the past time, would entail the use of the simple past, I did it, rather than the present perfect). However, there is no such objection to a sentence like I had done it last Friday, where the past perfect is accompanied by a specification of the time of occurrence, especially in a context that clearly provides for a connection with another past event, either specified (as in I hadn't met him then.) or implied (as in I hadn't expected that.). English also has a past perfect progressive (or past perfect continuous) construction, such as had been working. This is the past equivalent of the present perfect progressive, and is used to refer to an ongoing action that continued up to the past time of reference. For example: "It had been raining all night when he awoke." It is also commonly used to refer to actions that had led to consequences in the past (as in I was sleepy because I'd been working all night.). The past perfect form also has some uses in which it does not directly refer to an actual past event. These are generally in condition clauses and some other dependent clauses referring to hypothetical circumstances (as in "If I'd known about that, I wouldn't have asked."), as well as certain expressions of wish (as in "I wish I hadn't been so stupid back then."). German In German, the pluperfect (Plusquamperfekt, Präteritumperfekt, or Vorvergangenheit, lit. pre-past) is used in much the same manner, normally in a nachdem sentence. The Plusquamperfekt is formed with the Partizip Perfekt (Partizip II) of the full lexical verb, plus the auxiliary verb haben or sein in its preterite form, depending on the full lexical verb in question.Nachdem ich aufgestanden war, ging ich ins Badezimmer. "After I had got up, I went into the bathroom." When using modal verbs, one can use either the modal verb in the preterite or the auxiliary (haben for all modals):Es hätte regnen müssen."It had to have rained."Es musste geregnet haben."It must have rained." There is a drastic shift of meaning between these variants: the first sentences denote that it "had been necessary" to rain in the past. The second sentence denotes that the speaker assumed that it had rained. Swedish In standard Swedish, the pluperfect (pluskvamperfekt) is similar to pluperfect in a number of other Germanic languages,