An obituary...

...for the "past perfect" and "future perfect" tenses of  verbs.  I am constantly bombarded by atrocious grammar.  It's everywhere.  Did English grammar die in the 1950's?  I guess it did and I wish I hadn't been a recipient of such good grammar teaching because here's what I have to endure:

"He finished his work by noon, but was killed before that."  Incorrect.

"He had finished work by noon, but had been killed before that."  Correct.

This is the "past perfect".  People are always saying, "but was killed after that."  The verb indicates an action completed prior to another time or another action, thus the auxiliary "had" must be used with the principal verb.  This is called the "past perfect tense."  It's long gone.

"I shall finish my work by noon."  Incorrect because you do not know if you will have finished by noon. 

"I hope I shall have finished my work by noon."  Correct.

"The conference was to start tomorrow."  Incorrect.

"The conference was to have started tomorrow."  Correct.

This is the "future perfect" tense because the verb indicates an action which will have been completed before some point of time in the future, so the auxiliaries "shall have" and "was to have" must be used.  It must also be used to describe, for example, a conference which had not actually taken place.  If the conference were still on schedule, you would say, "The conference is to start tomorrow."  If it had not taken place, you would say, "The conference was to have started tomorrow."  Long gone.

Listen to any television show, or read any newspaper and you will know those "perfect" tenses died agonizing deaths years ago.