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Past Tense

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10 views4 pages

Past Tense

esl

Uploaded by

qmdsjdgknh
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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1.

Past Simple
The first past tense you’ll often learn in your English classes is the past simple.
Form
For regular verbs we add -ed to the infinitive form of the verb. E.g.

Irregular verbs however, take a different form. There are hundreds of irregular
verbs and you just have to learn them off by heart! Here are some of the most
common:

Use
The main use of the past simple is for finished actions in the past. For example:
 I was born in San Francisco.
 I cleaned my room.
 I forgot my key.

We can use it with a finished time phrase like in the sentences below:
 Yesterday I went to the supermarket.
 Last night we watched the football.
 The phone rang five minutes ago.

Other common time expressions you can use are:


last month, last week, last summer, in 1997, when I was a child, a long time ago,
on Monday, in February etc.
We also use the past simple for the main action when telling a story.
E.g. I woke up on my wedding day, I jumped out of bed and
immediately called my brother. He didn’t pick up and so I began to worry.

2. Past Continuous
Another common past tense is the past continuous.
Form
We form it using was/were + verb + ing.
Use
A common use of the past continuous is to show that a longer action was
interrupted (usually by a shorter action in the past simple). We often use the time
expression when. For example:
 I was swimming in the sea when I saw a shark.
 Henry was sitting at home when the phone rang.
 She was playing golf when it began to rain.

When two continuous actions are happening at the same time we use the time
expression while.
 I was talking to Sarah while she was driving.
 We were playing while dad was cooking dinner.

We can also use it to show a continuous action happening at a specific time in


the past.
 Yesterday morning I was practising the piano.
 At 6 o’clock I was eating dinner.
 What were you doing at 8pm last night?

Finally, it can be used to add some description to a story.


E.g. It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining and the birds were singing.
We were walking around our favourite park.
Note we don’t usually use continuous tenses with stative verbs.

3. Past Perfect
Now we can move on to a slightly more difficult tense – the past perfect.
Form
We make the past perfect by using had + past participle.
Use
We use it when one action happens before another past action. For example:
A. The film had started when we arrived. (the film started before we arrived)
B. The film started when we arrived (we arrived at the same time the film started)
We use time expressions such as before, by the time and when.

4. Past Perfect Continuous


The past perfect continuous is very similar to the past perfect.
Form
We form the past perfect continuous with had + been + verb + ing.
Use
We use it to show that an action which started in the past continued up to another
point in the past. For example:
 She had been living in Italy for three years when she lost her job.
 I had been waiting for ten minutes before the bus came.
 By the time Steve arrived I had been working for nearly eight hours!

With the past perfect we use time expressions such as for five hours, for 2 weeks,
for a long time, by the time.
We can also use it to talk about the cause of something in the past. E.g.
 Susan was sweating because she had been running.
 Henry was late because he had been studying.

Note we don’t usually use continuous tenses with stative verbs.


Activity Four
Practise when to use past perfect vs. past perfect continuous with this quiz!
Choose the correct answer in each question:
1. The children were tired because they had played all morning / had been
playing all morning.
2. The customers were angry because the waiter had forgotten / had been
forgetting their order.
3. He had married / had been marrying her two years before we met.
4. I had never stayed / had never been staying in London until 2012.
5. We had tried / had been trying the door for several hours before Anna found
her key.

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