The Past Tense
Simple Past: The simple past is a verb tense that is used to talk about things that happened or existed before ‘now’.
Example: Negative Sentence
He entered the party with a lot of pomp. He did not enter the party with a lot of pomp I was skinny as a child. I was not skinny as a child
Roger won the World Championship again Roger did not win the World Championship I had a car. He did not have a car.
Past Continuous: We use the past continuous to talk about the past:
for something which happened before and after another action:
The children were doing their homework when I got home.
Compare: The children did their homework when (= after) I got home.
This use of the past continuous is very common at the beginning of a story:
The other day I was waiting for a bus when … Last week, as I was driving to work…
for something that happened before and after a specific time:
It was eight o'clock. I was writing a letter.
Compare: At eight o'clock I wrote (= started writing) some letters.
to show that something continued for some time:
My head was aching.
Everyone was shouting.
for something that happened again and again:
I was practising every day, three times a day.
They were meeting secretly after school.
They were always quarrelling.
with verbs which show change or growth:
The children were growing up quickly.
Her English was improving.
My hair was going grey.
The town was changing quickly.
Past Perfect: The past perfect tense indicates that an action was completed (finished or
"perfected") at some point in the past before something else happened. This tense is formed with the past tense form of "to have" (HAD) plus the past participle of the verb (which can be either regular or irregular in form):
I had walked two miles by lunchtime.
I had run three other marathons before this one.
They had played a match in Kolkata.
It had been a wonderful trip in Goa last month.
Past Perfect Continuous: The past perfect continuous tense (also known as the past perfect progressive tense) shows that an action that started in the past continued up until another time in the past. The past perfect continuous tense is constructed using had been + the verb's present participle (root + -ing).
The past perfect continuous tense indicates that something that began in the past, continued in the past, and also ended at a definedpoint in the past.
Example: He had been drinking milk out the carton when Mom walked into the kitchen.
I had been working at the company for five years when I got the promotion.
When, for, since, and before are words that you may see used alongside the past perfect continuous tense.
Mira had been walking three miles a day before she broke her leg.
The program that was terminated had been working well since 1945.
Kamna had been playing the piano for 35 years when she was finally asked to do a solo.
