PAST TENSES

PAST SIMPLE:
Form:
- Affirmative: Regular verbs: verb -e + “d” lived / verb + “ed” walked, played / verb –consonant + “y”,
drop the “y” and add “ied” try – tried BUT verb –vowel + “y” + “ed” enjoy – enjoyed / (1 syllable)
verb –CVC, double the last consonant and add “ed” stop – stopped.
They watched a great film last night. She found all the information on the Internet yesterday.
Irregular verbs (Second column from the list) went, understood, knew, etc.
- Negative: “didn’t” + verb (base form) He didn’t see his girlfriend at the party last night.
- Interrogative: (Wh- word) + “Did” + subject + verb (base form)? Did they tell you the latest news?
Uses: to talk about finished actions, events that started and finished at a specific time in the past. The time when
the action happened can be stated or understood from context.
- To talk about a single event: The judge started his job in 1998.
- To refer to Past STATES (≠ activity verbs): I didn’t understand my teacher.
- To tell the main events of a story in order: I went to the park and I saw a crowd of people.
Time expressions: yesterday, last (week / Saturday), (a month) ago, the day before yesterday, in 2000 (year), in
February (month), in the 1990’s (decade), the 20th century, from … to …

PAST CONTINUOUS:
Form:
- Affirmative: was / were + verb “–ing”
- Negative: wasn’t / weren’t + verb “-ing”
- Interrogative: (Wh-word) + was / were + subject + verb “-ing”? Were you working last night?
Uses:
- To describe an action that was in progress at a specific time in the past: At ten o’clock yesterday, I was
walking to the station.
- To describe a temporary situation in the past: We were staying with our cousins.
- To set the scene in a story or gives background information: I was walking along the road one
evening…
- Longer actions interrupted by shorter actions. WHEN (used with the Past Simple for the interrupting
action). WHILE / AS (used with the Past Continuous for the interrupted action):
Tom was eating dinner when Mary arrived.
While/As Tom was eating dinner, Mary arrived.
- To describe two actions in progress at the same time in the past. Use WHILE or AS
She was doing some research while/as she was teaching.
BUT: They fell in love WHEN they met (one action after the other)