The Past Tenses

The Past Tenses

1. Past Simple

   • The main use of the past simple is for finished actions in the past.
     • I was born in San Francisco.
   • It can be used it with a finished time phrase
     • The phone rang five minutes ago.
   • Used alongside expressions such as: Last week, last summer, in 1997, when I was a child, a long time ago, on Monday, in February etc.
   • The past simple is also used for the main action when telling a story
     • I woke up on my wedding day, I jumped out of bed and immediately called my brother.

2. Past Continuous

   • 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)
     • I was swimming in the sea when I saw a shark.
   • When two continuous actions were happening at the same time in the past of the speaking
     • We were playing while dad was cooking dinner.
   • It can be used to show a continuous action happening at a specific time in the past.
     • At 6 o’clock I was eating dinner.
   • Used alongside expressions such as: Last week, last summer, in 1997, when I was a child, a long time ago, on Monday, in February etc. but with some special words such as, while, when, as

3. Past Perfect Simple

   • We use it when one action happens before another past action.
     • The film had started when we arrived. (the film started before we arrived)
     • 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

   • We use it to show that an action which started in the past continued up to another point in the past.
     • By the time Steve arrived I had been working for nearly eight hours!
   • We can also use it to talk about the cause of something in the past
     • Susan was sweating because she had been running.
   • Time expressions such as: By the time, when , as before, just, alongside with key words such as while, because, etc.