Past tenses in English
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In this part of the course you will learn all about the English past tense. The English tense has the following past tenses:
This chapter will show you an overview of when to use the different past tenses. For a more detailed explanation of the tenses you can take a look at the different chapters of this course, where you will also find exercises to practice the tenses.
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The simple past of the English regular verbs are formed by adding '-ed' to the infinitive of the verb.
For the past perfect the verbs 'to have' and 'to be' are used in the past tense together with the past participle.
The past continuous is formed with the past simple of the auxiliary verb 'to be' and the present participle of the verb.
To form the past perfect continuous the past perfect of the verb 'to be' is used followed by the present participle of the main verb (verb + ing).
The table below gives you an overview of the different past tenses in English.
Tense | Usage | Example |
---|---|---|
Past simple | The past simple is used for describing a completed action that took place in the past. |
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Past perfect | The past perfect is used to indicate that an action in the past occurred before another action also in the past. |
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Past continuous | The past continuous is used to describe actions starting in the past and are still continuing in the present. |
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Past perfect continuous | The past perfect continuous is used to describe actions that were going on in the past until another action in the past occurred. |
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Do the exercise to practice the different tenses!
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1 Past simple tense in English | Learn all about the past simple tense in English. |
2 Past perfect tense in English | Learn all about the past perfect tense in English. |
3 Past continuous tense in English | Learn all about the past continuous tense in English. |
4 Past perfect continuous tense in English | Learn all about the past perfect continuous tense in English. |