The document summarizes the simple past and past continuous tenses in English. It discusses:
1) The simple past tense is used to talk about completed actions or situations in the past. Regular verbs are made past by adding "-ed" and irregular verbs have unique past forms.
2) The past continuous tense is used to describe activities that were ongoing or habitual in the past. It is formed with "was/were" plus the "-ing" form of the verb.
3) Examples are provided to illustrate forming sentences in the simple past and past continuous, as well as using them together to describe two simultaneous past events.
3. Past Tense :
Simple and Continuous
is a . . .
PAST COTINUOUS
TENSE
SIMPLE PAST
TENSE
4. Simple Past Tense
Simple Past Tense, often just called
the Past Tense.
In General, the Past Tense is used to
talk about something that started and
finished at definite time in the past, or
finished action in the past and past
situations, repeated or continuous,
and past habits.
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5. FORM OF PAST TENSE
In the Past Simple we add –ed (or –ied for
verb ending –y) to the invinitive or use the
past form of irregular verbs
Affirmative (+)
sentences
Negative ( - )
sentences
Question (?)
sentences
For example :
the past tense of the verb want is wanted
Wanted is used as the past tense for all
subject/pronouns.
I wanted, you wanted , he wanted, she
wanted, it wanted, we wanted,
they wanted.
6. PAST TENSE REGULAR VERBS
To change a regular verbs
into its past tense form,
we normally add -ed to
the end of the verb.
Examples
Play – played
Cook – cooked
Rain – rained
Wait – waited
Need – needed
Etc.
Last night I played my guitar loudly and the neighbors complained
It rained yesterday
Angela watched TV all night
John wanted to go to the museum
(+) Subject + verb II “regular/irregular verbs”
Affirmative / Positive Sentences
Examples of the sentences using regular verbs in the past tense :
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7. NEGATIVE SENTENCES
IN THE PAST TENSE (-)
We use didn’t (did not) to make a negative
sentence in the past tense. This is for regular
and irregular verbs in English.
(Exception is TO BE and Modal Verbs such as Can)
(-) Subject + didn’t +
Invinitive
Compare the following :
Present : They don’t live in
Canada.
Past : They didn’t live in Canada
More examples
sentences
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8. Examples of Negative sentences in
the Past Tense :
• You didn’t need a mechanic
• You didn’t walk to work
• We didn’t meet them last night
• I didn’t want to go to the dentist
• You didn’t close the door
• They didn’t study so they didn’t pass the test
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9. QUESTION IN THE PAST TENSE
(?)
In questions and negative sentences we use the infinitive and did or didn’t
Example :
Did you see the match last night?
Did he live in Italy?
Did you ride your bike to work?
Note: We can also use a
question word (who, what, why,
etc.) before ‘did’ to ask for
more information.
did/didn’t +Subject + Invinitive
+ .... ?
Did you study ?
- Yes, I did.
When did you
study ?
- I studied last
night
Where did you
study ?
- I studied at the
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10. IRREGULAR VERBS IN THE PAST
TENSEIrregular verbs are only irregular in affirmative/positive
sentence.
An exeption to this is with the verb TO BE in the past tense.
For example:
the past tense of GO is
WENT.
It does not end in –ed so
it is considered irregular.
The word went is used for all subject
–I, you, we, they, he, she, it
Example sentences :
I went to the beach
But, as we mentioned before, it is only in its irregular form
‘went’ in sentences that are affirmative/positive.
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11. IRREGULAR VERBS IN THE PAST
TENSECompare the following using Go in the past tense.
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(+) They went to the
beach
(-) They didn’t go the
beach
Did they go to the beach (?)
“Did/Didn’t shows that we are talking in the past tense”
This is the end part of Simple Past Tense
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12. THE Past Contiuous
We use the Past Continuous tense to talk about :
Activities that form a background
for some events :
An activity or activities that
continued for some time in the
past :
It was raining during the whole match.
I was trying to fix my bike all morning.
I was doing my homework while he was
watching TV.
We were talking quietly when a fight
broke out.
She was waiting for a bus when we met
for the first time.
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13. FORMING THE PAST CONTINUOUS
The past continuous of any verb is
composed of two parts :
the past tense of the verb
“to be" (was/were), and the
base of the main verb +ing.
(+) Subject + was/were + base -ing
(-) Subject + wasn’t/weren’t + base -ing
was/were + subject + base –ing (?)
what,when,... + subject +was/were + base –ing (?)
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14. How do we use the Past Continuous Tense?
The Past Continuous tense expresses action at a particular moment in
the past. The action started before that moment but has not finished at
that moment.
For example, yesterday I watched a film onTV.
The film started at 7pm and finished at 9pm.
At 8pm yesterday, I was watchingTV.
“At 8pm, I was in the middle of watchingTV.”
Past Present Future
8 pm
When we use the Past Continuous tense, our
listener usually knows or understands what
time we are talking about
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examples sentences
15. Examples of sentences in the
Past Tense Continuous
• I was working at 10pm last night.
• They were not playing football at 9am this morning.
• What were you doing at 10pm last night?
• What were you doing when he arrived?
• She was cooking when I telephoned her.
• We were having dinner when it started to rain.
• Were they playing football?
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16. Form: Using Past and Past Continuous Together
We use
the Past Continuous to express a long action. And Past Simple to express a short action.
that happens in the middle of the long action. We can join the two ideas with when or while.
long action (watchingTV), expressed with Past Continuous
short action (telephoned), expressed with Past Simple
We use:
when + short action
(Past Simple)
while + long action
(Past Continuous)
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17. past Present future
long action:
I was watching TV from 7pm to 9pm.
8pm
short action: You phoned at 8pm.
Notice that
"when you
telephoned" is
also a way of
defining the
time (8pm).
We can join these two actions with when:
I was
watching
TV when
you
telephoned. examples sentences
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18. I was walking past the car when it exploded.
When the car exploded I was walking past it.
The car exploded while I was walking past it.
While I was walking past the car it exploded.
Notice that the long action and short action are relative.
"WatchingTV" took two hours. "Telephoned" took a few seconds.
"Walking past the car" took a few seconds. "Exploded" took
milliseconds.
This is the end part of Past ContinuousTense
There are four basic combinations:
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referencesExit
20. REFERENCES
• Sharman, Dean, etc. New Opportunities Education
for life, Intermediate language power book, pearson
longman.
• www.grammar.cl/english/past-tense.htm
• https://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-
tenses_past-continuous_u.htm
• Picture by google
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