Past Tense

Definition of Past Tense :

Past tense is to tell the events or incidents at the past time.

Past tense is used :

:: When the speaker thinks of an activity or state as occurred and complete at a specific time in the past .

:: For a non-fact in the present or future  time.This is traditionally called the” subjunctive mood “.

Example : f I had the money now,I’d buy a car .

=) To refer a single event on the past .

Example : I called Mary last night .

=) The past habitual action .

Example : We went to school together,and we shared many experinces .

The Simple Past Tense :

Simple Past Tense is kind of tense which is used to describe an event or action that happened already in a certain time in the past.

Adverbs used: yesterday,last night ,last week,two days ago,a few minutes ago,last weekend ,last month ,last years,in 1984,etc

=) Simple past for regular verbs is added by- ed to the root of a word .

Example : She worked at the office yesterday .

=) A negation is produced by adding did not and the verb in its infinitive form .

Example : She did not work at the office yesterday .

Question sentence are started with did as in Did  she work at the office yesterday ?

Verbal

There are two pattern of Simple Past Tense :

( + ) Subject + verb II + complement

( -  ) Subject + did not + verb I + complement

( ?  ) Did + subject + verb I ?

Nominal

( + ) Subject + to be ( was/were ) + Object

( – ) Subject + to be ( was/were ) + Not + Object

( ? ) To be ( was/ were ) + Subject + Object ?

Past Continuonus Tense

Past Continuonus Tense is a kind of tense that is used to describe an event or an action which was happening in a certain in the past.

As with the present tense,the continuous aspect that the activity is in progress ,or that it is uncompleted ,at  the specified time.

The Pattern :

( + ) Subject + to be ( was/were ) + verb – ing + complement

(  - ) Subject + was not / were not + verb- ing + complement

( ? ) Was/were + subject + verb-ing + complement ?

Past Perfect Tense

Past Perfect Tense is a kind of tense that is used to describe an action or an event that started in a certain time in the past and completed or finished till certain or an event that had happened before the other event or action happened.

The Pattern :

( + ) Subject + had + verb III + complement

( – ) Subject + had not + verb III + complement

( ? ) Had + subject + verb III + complement ?

Past Perfect Continuous Tense

Past Perfect Continuous Tense is like the past perfect tense ,but it  expresses longer actions in the past.

The Pattern :

( + ) Subject + Had + been + verb –ing + complement

( -  ) Subject + Had + not + been + verb-ing + complement

( ? ) Had + subject + been + verb –ing + complement ?