Past Tenses
Past Tenses
Past Tenses
TENSES
PAST SIMPLE
How to form it:
Affirmative sentence: Negative sentence:
subject + verb regular: -ed or subject + did not/didn’t + verb (infinitive)
subject + verb irregular: 2nd
Example: Example:
They played football. They didn’t play football.
She bought a dress yesterday. She didn’t buy a dress.
• simultaneous actions (two or more actions which were happening at the same time in the past)
Example: They were making dinner while he was building a snowman.
Negatives are made with not. Past perfect is the past equivalent of the present perfect.
Statement: You had studied English before you moved to New York.
Question: Had you studied English before you moved to New York?
Negative: You had not studied English before you moved to New York.
We use Past Perfect for:
• Talking about time up to a certain point in the past:
She had published her first poem by the time she was eight.
• An action which finished before another past action or before a stated time in the past
The thieves had escaped when the police arrived.
The shopping mall had closed by 10 p.m
• An action which finished in the past and whose result was visible at a later point in the past
Bethany was happy because she had won the race
• We can also use the past perfect followed by before to show that an action was not done or was incomplete when the past
simple action happened.
They left before I had spoken to them.
• Time expressions used with the past perfect: before, after, already, just, for, since, till/until, by, never
Past perfect continuous
Past perfect continuous is formed using
had + been + present participle (verb + -ing).
Affirmative:
You had been waiting there for more than two hours when she finally arrived.
Negative:
You had not been waiting there for more than two hours when she finally arrived.
Question:
Had you been waiting there for more than two hours when she finally arrived?
Yes, I had.
No, I hadn’t / had not.
We use past perfect continuous
for:
• To put emphasis on the duration of an action that began in the past and continued up to another action or time in the past.
Example: When I arrived, Ram had been waiting for two hours.
We had been trying to open the door for five minutes when Jane found her key.
• For an action which lasted for some time in the past and whose result was visible in the past.
Example: John was very tired. He had been running for an hour.
The children had been playing all afternoon and so the room was a mess!
• Time expressions: for, by, before, after, since, how long, before, until, etc.