The Past Tenses

We have 4 uses of the past tense in English

● The Past Simple: We use to talk about an event that took place in
the past and ended in the past. Eg, She finished her classes
yesterday.
We use it when:
The event is in the past · The event is completely finished · We say
(or understand) the time and/or place of the event
● The Past Progressive: We use it to describe a situation that was
taking place at the moment that we were speaking. Eg, I was
cooking when the phone rang.
● The Past Perfect: This tense is used to describe a situation that
took place before another event in the past. Eg, She had lived in
New York for 5 years before I moved to Boston.
● The Past Perfect Progressive: This tense is like the one before, but
it expresses longer actions in the past before another action in the
past. Eg, She had been eating cookies all day before she got sick.