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Past tense denition: The past tense is an English tense that expresses a form a
verb for events that have occurred.
simple past
I worked.
past progressive
I was working.
past perfect
I had worked.
past perfect progressive
I had been working.
Verb: to mail
Past: mailed
Example: I mailed the letter yesterday.
Verb: to ask
Past: asked
Example: You asked me to nish the chores.
Verb: to change
Past: changed
Example: U.S. stocks were little changed after the Federal Reserve held short-
term interest rates steady, as expected Wednesday. The Wall Street Journal
Some regular verbs with short vowel sounds require adding an extra consonant to
the end of the innitive before adding -ed.
Example:
Verb: to snag
Past: snagged
Verb: to drag
Past: dragged
Example: Property lenders saw an aggregate decline in volume of 30%, which
dragged business lending down. We think uncertainty in the UK property
market caused by Brexit drove the decline. Business Insider
A verb with a silent e at the end just requires a -d to create past tense.
Example:
Verb: to retire
Past: retired
Irregular verbs take various forms in the past tense. One example follows.
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Example:
Verb: to sing
Past: sang
duration
I was working.
interrupted actions in progress
I was working when he called.
actions happening at the same time
I was listening to music while I was working.
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polite question
I was wondering if you could help me.
Subject + had been + present participle (and -ing to end of the verb)
Past Tense of To Be
Past Tense of To Be Menu
Since the verb to be is an irregular verb, it can be confusing to sort it out through its
various tenses. Here is a brief outline.
To Be Conjugations:
To answer a few specic questions about the verb be in the past tense,
Yes, was is the rst person and third person past form of to be.
See above. Is is the present tense of to be. The past form is was.
See above. The past form of the verb be is was and were.
The above examples covered all of the various kinds of past tense verbs. English also
has a present tense and a future tense.
There are four main forms of the past tense. They include:
simple past
I worked.
past progressive
I was working.
past perfect
I had worked.
past perfect progressive
I had been working.
is used to express actions that have occurred at some time before the present
has four forms including: simple, past perfect, past progressive, and past
perfect progressive