Distinguishing Between Had Done & Have Done

Had Done vs Have Done

Had done and Have done are two grammatical forms that show some difference between them when it comes to the purpose of their usage. They are often confused as one and the same expression with the same meaning. Strictly speaking there is a difference between them. They speak about two different times. Have done belongs to the present or as it is present perfect, to the recent past. Had done belong to the past. They both talk about the same action of doing something. However, the time is different. Therefore, before applying either had done or have done, you have to think about the time the action took place.

What does Have Done mean?

The expression have done is used to express the idea that a work was completed recently. Have done is the present perfect form of the verb ‘do.’ The past participle form of do is done. As we all know, in a perfect tense, the verb is created using the helping verb and the past participle. So, in have done, the helping verb have and the past participle done is used. Have done is used to speak about a work that was completed recently, but the time the work was completed is not known. That is why the present perfect tense is used. Look at the following examples.

I have done it with satisfaction.
You have done it with perfection.

In the first sentence, you can see that a person has completed the work assigned to him recently. In the second sentence, you can find that a boss is applauding his employee that he has completed the work with perfection.

‘You have done it with perfection.’

It is very important to know that the expression have done is used only in the case of the first person and the second person. In other words, it can be said that have done can be used only in the case of the pronouns, namely, I and You or We and You. On the other hand, has done alone should be used in the case of the third person singular pronoun such as ‘he’ or ‘she’. Of course you should use ‘have done’ in the case of the third person plural pronoun like ‘they.’

What does Had Done mean?

Had done is the past perfect form of the verb ‘do’. It is interesting to note that the verb ‘do’ gets converted to ‘done’ in its perfect form because done is the past participle of do. The past perfect form of had done indicates an action that took place preferably long time ago as in the sentences given below. In other words, the action to which we use had done refers to something that happened long time ago in the past.

She had done the work superbly.
I had done it with precision.

In both the sentences, you can see that the work was completed long ago. In the first sentence, the work was done superbly and was completed long ago. In the second sentence, too you can see that somebody completed a work assigned to him long ago. Look at the following sentence.

She had done her work and gone home.

In the above sentence, you can see two tenses. There is the past perfect and the simple past. So, going was the action that happened recently while doing the work happened prior to going. So you can see that past perfect form of done is used to indicate an action that had happened a long time ago in the past.

‘She had done the work superbly.’

What is the difference between Had Done and Have Done?

• Have done is the present perfect form of the verb do. Had done is the past perfect form of the verb do.
• Both of the verb constructions are made with a helping verb and past participle of the given verb.
• Have done is used to speak of an action that was completed recently. This can be recent past where we do not know the exact time when the action took place. If we know the time, the tense changes to simple past.
• Had done is used to speak about an action that was completed a long time ago in the past.
• Have done can be used only with first person and second person pronouns as well as third person plural form. For the third person singular pronouns such as he and she, you have to use has done.
• Had done can be used with any pronoun without a problem.

Therefore, you have to think about the time the action happens before applying either had done or have done.

Key Takeaways

• Have done is the present perfect form of the verb do, while Had done is the past perfect form of the verb do.
• Have done is used to speak of an action that was completed recently, whereas Had done is used to speak about an action that was completed a long time ago in the past.
• Have done can be used only with first person and second person pronouns as well as third person plural form, while Had done can be used with any pronoun without a problem.