Past Tenses

1. Simple Past For past actions/ events , which are

usually short in duration the past time of these actions/events

may/may not be given E.g. I borrowed two books last week. The teacher told us a bad news.

Simple Past

must be used when the word ago is used. E.g. I visited Peter three days ago.

Used to + Bare infinitive

They are the basic verb forms, e.g. go,

read, do, without adding ‘s’/‘es’/ ‘ed’

For showing PAST Habits, not the present ones.

E.g. I used to swim on Sundays, but in these two years, I usually go fishing.

(here, swimming was the past habit and the present habit is fishing)

Be used to + -ing

Be can take the form of

“is/am/are”

for present habitsE.g. I am used to studying at night.

2. Past Continuous Tense

For showing what was happening in a particular past moment.

For longer past actions/events

E.g. I was watching TV at 9 p.m. last night. They were reading books last morning.

When/While

linking two actions happening at the same time

long actions: -ing form (e.g. is watching)

short actions: simple form (e.g. opened the door)

While: Linking long actions (-ing)

E.g. While he was doing his homework, I was watching TV.

While +-ing

I was watching TV while he was doing his homework.

While in the

front, => “,”

While in the

central, => no “,”

When: Linking both long & short actions

E.g. When he was doing his homework, I was watching TV.

(two long actions)

When + -ing

E.g. When he entered the room, he smelt something burning.

(two short actions)

When + simple past

Can when be placed at the centre of the

sentence? YES

How about linking one long and one short actions?

E.g. I was having my bath when he entered the flat.

Long

Short

While he was doing his homework, the telephone rang.

Long

Short

3. Past Perfect Tense

used when there are two past actions one action before the other

action A action B now

2 days ago

1 day ago

now

action A action B now