Past Tenses

Simple Past
Past Perfect
Past Progressive

Student Learning Objectives Practice with Past Tenses

Simple Past Tense

 When we are talking about something that we have done in the past and it is finished, we use the simple
past tense.
 Uses of simple past:
 Completed events
 Habitual (repeated) events in the past
 Past states (liked, knew)
 Regular verbs take the –ed ending for simple past tense.

 For example:
I walked to school yesterday.
I realized it was the day before Thanksgiving break!
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Past Perfect
 A time or event in the past. It is used to show that this event occurred before
another event in the past.

 Uses of Past Perfect

 The situation ended before a past event
 The situation began in the past and was continuing when another past event occurred.

 For example:
 I had lived there for 5 years before we hosted a holiday dinner.
 We had finished the dinner when the phone rang.
Past Progressive
 In English, we use the past progressive when we are talking about an event that
was going on in the past when something else happened in the past.
 The past progressive takes the form: was/were verb + ing.

 Uses of Past Progressive

 Something that was ongoing at one point in time
 An action that was repeated for a certain amount of time in the past

 For example:
I was cooking dinner when the phone rang.
They were kicking the ball around in the backyard.

Self-Assessment