Past

There are four past tenses in English. Use them to talk about things that started and ended in the past or
things that started in the past and continue to the present.

Simple Past for actions starting and ending in the past.

Past Perfect for actions that started and ended in the past before another action that is also in the past.

Past Perfect Continuous for actions that were going on in the past up until another action in the past
happened.

Simple past tense

Definition of the simple past tense

The simple past tense, sometimes called the preterite, is used to talk about a completed action in a time
before now. The simple past is the basic form of past tense in English. The time of the action can be in the
recent past or the distant past and action duration is not important.

Examples

John Cabot sailed to America in 1498.

My father died last year.

He lived in Fiji in 1976.

We crossed the Channel yesterday.

You always use the simple past when you say when something happened, so it is associated with certain
past time expressions

frequency: often, sometimes, always

a definite point in time: last week, when I was a child, yesterday, six weeks ago
We saw a good film last week.
Yesterday, I arrived in Geneva.
She finished her work atseven o'clock
I went to the theatre last night

an indefinite point in time: the other day, ages ago, a long time ago People lived in caves a long time ago.

She played the piano when she was a child.

Note: the word ago is a useful way of expressing the distance into the past. It is placed after the period of
time: a week ago, three years ago, a minute ago.

Be Careful: The simple past in English may look like a tense in your own language, but the meaning may
be different.

Forming the Simple Past Tense

Patterns of simple past tense for regular verbs

Subject + verb + ed

I skipped.

Negative

Subject + did not + infinitive without to

They didn't go.

Interrogative

Did + subject + infinitive without to

Did she arrive?

Interrogative negative

Did not + subject + infinitive without to

Didn't you play?

To Walk

Affirmative Negative Interrogative

I walked I didn't walk Did I walk?

You walked You didn't walk Did you walk?

He walked He didn't walk Did he walk?

We walked We didn't walk Did we walk?

They walked They didn't walk Did they walk?

Simple past tense of to be, to have, to do

Subject Verb

Be Have Do

I was had did

You were had did

He/She/It was had did

We were had did

You were had did

They were had did

Notes on affirmative, negative, & interrogative forms

Affirmative

The affirmative of the simple past tense is simple.

I was in Japan last year

She had a headache yesterday.

We did our homework last night.

Negative and interrogative

For the negative and interrogative simple past form of "do" as an ordinary verb, use the auxiliary "do", e.g.
We didn't do our homework last night.
The negative of "have" in the simple past is usually formed using the auxiliary "do", but sometimes by
simply adding not or the contraction "n't".

The interrogative form of "have" in the simple past normally uses the auxiliary "do".

Examples

They weren't in Rio last summer.

We didn't have time to visit the Eiffel Tower.

We didn't do our exercises this morning.

Were they in Iceland last January?

Did you have a bicycle when you were young?

Did you do much climbing in Switzerland?

Note: For the negative and interrogative form of all verbs in the simple past, always use the auxiliary 'did''.

Simple past, irregular verbs

Some verbs are irregular in the simple past. Here are the most common ones.

to go

He went to a club last night.

Did he go to the cinema last night?

He didn't go to bed early last night.

to give

We gave her a doll for her birthday.

They didn't give John their new address.

Did Barry give you my passport?

to come

My parents came to visit me last July.

We didn't come because it was raining.

Did he come to your party last week?

Past continuous tense

Functions of the Past continuous

The past continuous describes actions or events in a time before now, which began in the past and is still
going on at the time of speaking. In other words, it expresses an unfinished or incomplete action in the past.

It is used:

Often, to describe the background in a story written in the past tense, e.g. "The sun was shining and the
birds were singing as the elephant came out of the jungle. The other animals were relaxing in the shade of
the trees, but the elephant moved very quickly. She was looking for her baby, and she didn't notice the
hunter who was watching her through his binoculars. When the shot rang out, she was running towards the
river..."
to describe an unfinished action that was interrupted by another event or action, e.g. "I was having a
beautiful dream when the alarm clock rang."

to express a change of mind: e.g. "I was going to spend the day at the beach but I've decided to get my
homework done instead."

with 'wonder', to make a very polite request: e.g. "I was wondering if you could baby-sit for me tonight."

Examples

They were waiting for the bus when the accident happened.

Caroline was skiing when she broke her leg.

When we arrived he was having a bath.

When the fire started I was watching television.

Note: with verbs not normally used in the continuous form, the simple past is used.

Forming the Past continuous

The past continuous of any verb is composed of two parts : the past tense of the verb "to be" (was/were),
and the base of the main verb +ing.

Subject was/were base + ing

They were watching

Affirmative

She was reading

Negative

She wasn't reading

Interrogative

Was she reading?

Interrogative negative

Wasn't she reading?

To play, past continuous

I was playing I was not playing Was I playing?

You were playing You were not playing Were you playing?

He was playing He wasn't playing Was he playing?

We were playing We weren't playing Were we playing?

They were playing They weren't playing Were they playing?