Past Tense: Concept and Its Types | Turito

Tense alludes to the formation of a verb to mirror its place in time—that is, when the action happened. 

• Technically there are two grammatical tenses in English: the past tense and the present tense. Verbs in their basic form inherently describe the present time, and they can be conjugated into a unique form that describes the past. 

The Past Tense 

Simple Past Tense 

• Verbs that tell us about actions that occurred in the past are called in the simple past tense. 
• I walked to school yesterday. 
• They played football last week. 

Past Continuous Tense 

The past continuous is used to express an action or a state which occurred in the past and continued for some time.  

• She was working very hard last month. 
• The cows were grazing in the field. 
• She was singing 

 Past Perfect Tense 

• The past perfect is utilized to show that one action or event happened before another past action, event, or time. 
• I took the decision after I had spoken  to John.  
• Before he left the office, John had spoken to his supervisor. 

Past Perfect Continuous Tense  

• The past perfect continuous tense is used when an action or event was happening for a period of time until (or just before) another action, event, or time. 

• I had been learning English in this school for 20 days. 
• Had she not been writing a letter?