PAST TENSE

The 'past tense' is a verb tense expressing action, activity, state or being in the past.
In English, there are two distinct types of past tense:
# Present perfect (see perfect tense)
# Preterite (or simple past)
Each of these may also be found in the progressive (continuous) aspect.
'Simple past' is formed for regular verbs by adding ''–ed'' to the root of a word. Example: ''He walked to the store''. A negation is produced by adding ''did not'' and the verb in its infinitive form. Example: ''He did not walk to the store''. Question sentences are started with ''did'' as in ''Did he walk to the store?''
Simple past is used for describing acts that have already been concluded and whose exact time of occurrence is known. Furthermore, simple past is used for retelling successive events. That is why it is commonly used in storytelling.
'Past progressive' is formed by using the adequate form of ''to be'' and the verb’s present participle: ''He was going to church''. By inserting ''not'' before the main verb a negation is achieved. Example: ''He was not going to church''. A question is formed by prefixing the adequate form of ''to be'' as in ''Was he going?''.
Past progressive is used for describing events that were just about to occur when a new event happened. The already occurring event is presented in past progressive, the new one in simple past. Example: ''We were sitting in the garden when the thunderstorm started.'' Use is similar to other languages' imperfect tense.
'Present perfect simple' is formed by combining ''have/has'' with the main verb’s past participle form: ''I have arrived''. A negation is produced by inserting ''not'' after ''have/has'': ''I have not arrived''. Questions in present perfect are formulated by starting a sentence with ''have/has'': ''Has she arrived?''
Present perfect simple is used for describing a past action’s effect on the present: ''He has arrived. Now he’s here''. This holds true for events that have just been secluded as well as for events that have not yet occurred.
'Present perfect progressive' is formed by prefixing have/has before the grammatical particle ''been'' and the verb’s present participle form: ''We have been waiting''. A negation is expressed by including ''not'' between ''have/has'' and ''been'': ''They have not been eating''. As with present perfect simple, for forming a question, ''have/has'' is put at the beginning of a sentence: ''Have they been eating?''
Present perfect progressive is used for describing an event that has been going on until the present and may be continued in the future. It also puts emphasis on how an event has occurred. Very often ''since'' and ''for'' mark the use of present perfect progressive: ''I have been waiting for 5 hours / I have been waiting since 3 o’clock.''
Furthermore, there is another version of past tense possible: past perfect, similar to other languages' pluperfect tense.
'Past perfect simple' is formed by combining the simple past form of ''to have'' with the simple past form of the main verb: ''We had shouted''. A negation is achieved by including ''not'' after ''had'': ''You had not spoken''. Questions in past perfect always start with ''had: Had he laughed?''
Past perfect simple is used for describing secluded events that have occurred before something else followed. The event that is closer to the present is given in simple past tense: ''After we had visited our relatives in New York, we flew back to Toronto.''
'Past perfect progressive' is formed by ''had'', the grammatical particle ''been'' and the present participle of the main verb: ''You had been waiting''. For negation, ''not'' is included before ''been'': ''I had not been waiting''. A question sentence is formed by starting with ''had'': ''Had she been waiting?''
If emphasis is put on the duration of a concluded action of the past, ''since'' and ''for'' are signal words for past perfect progressive: ''We had been waiting at the airport since the 9 p.m. flight. / They had been waiting for 3 hours now.

Contents

See also

See also

★ Grammatical tense

★ Present tense

★ Future tense