Past Tense
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Lesson 385
Past Tense
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Simple Past Tense
• The Simple Past is used to indicate an action completed in the past. It often occurs with adverbs or adverb phrases of past time.
E.g.
i) The steamer sailed yesterday.
ii) I received his letter a week ago.

• Sometimes this tense is used without an adverb of time. In such cases the time may be either implied or indicated by the context.
E.g.
i) I learnt Hindi in Nagpur.
ii) I didn't sleep well (i.e, last night).

• The Simple Past is also used for past habits.
E.g.
i) He studied many hours every day.
ii) She always carried an umbrella.
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We use the simple past tense to talk about:
• Something that happened once in the past.
E.g.
i) I met my wife in 1983.
ii) We went to Spain for our holidays.
iii) They got home very late last night.

• Something that happened again and again in the past.
E.g.
i) When I was a boy I walked a mile to school every day.
ii) We swam a lot while we were on holiday.
iii) They always enjoyed visiting their friends.

• Something that was true for some time in the past.
E.g.
i) I lived abroad for ten years.
ii) He enjoyed being a student.
iii) She played a lot of tennis when she was younger.

• We often use phrases with ago with the past tense.
E.g.
i) I met my wife a long time ago.
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Questions and negatives in Simple Past Tense:
• We use did to make questions with the past tense:
E.g.
i) When did you meet your wife?
ii) Where did you go for your holidays?
iii) Did she play tennis when she was younger?
iv) Did you live abroad?

But look at these questions:
i) Who discovered penicillin?
ii) Who wrote Don Quixote?
These are called subject questions – because the question word is the subject of the sentence. There is no auxiliary verb and the word order is not inverted.

• We use 'didn’t (did not') to make negatives in the past tense:
E.g.
i) They didn’t go to Spain this year.
ii) We didn’t get home until very late last night.
iii) I didn’t see you yesterday.
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Past Continuous Tense

• The Past Continuous is used to denote an action going on at some time in the past. The time of the action may or may not be indicated.
E.g.
i) We were watching TV all evening.
ii) It was getting darker.
iii) The light went out while I was reading.
iv) When I saw him, he was playing chess.

=> In the last two examples above, the Past Continuous and the Simple Past are used together when a new action happened in the middle of a longer action. The Simple Past is used for the new action.

• This tense is also used with always, continually etc. for persistent habits in the past.
E.g.
i) He was always grumbling.
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Pick the correct option:
The earth ______
move
moves
moved
Pick the correct option:
My friends ______
were seeing
have seen
Pick the correct option:
She ______
looked
was looked
Pick the correct option:
It started to rain while we ______
were playing
played
Pick the correct option:
He ______
drove
Pick the correct option:
He ______
falled
fell
has falled
felled
Pick the correct option:
I'm sure I ______
saw
had seen
have seen
Pick the correct option:
He ______
was having
Pick the correct option:
I ______
heard
was hearing
Pick the correct option:
Yesterday, I ______
went to the Post Office, bought some fruit at the supermarket and read
was going to the Post Office, was buying some fruit at the supermarket and read
Pick the correct option:
Abdul ______
wanted
was wanting
Pick the correct option:
The soup ______
was tasted
tasted
was tasting
Pick the correct option:
He ______
watched
was watching
Pick the correct option:
When he lived in Hyderabad, he ______
went
was going
Pick the correct option:
I ______
haven't seen
didn't see
Pick the correct option:
Ashok fell off the ladder when he ______
was mending
mended
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Past Perfect Tense
• The past perfect describes an action completed before a certain moment in the past.
• If two actions happened in the past, it may be necessary to show which action happened earlier than the other. The past perfect is mainly used in such situations. The simple past is used in one clause (the more recent action) and the past perfect in the other (the older action).
E.g.
i) When I reached the station the train had started (so I couldn't get into the train).
ii) I had done my exercise when Han came to see me.
iii) I had written the letter before he arrived.
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Past Perfect Continuous Tense
• The past perfect continuous is used for an action that began before a certain point in the past and continued up to that time.
E.g.
i) At that time he had been writing a novel for two months.
ii) When Mr. Mukherji came to the school in 1995, Mr. Anand had already been teaching there for five years.
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Pick the correct option:
He thanked me for what I ______
did
had done
had did
Pick the correct option:
He ______
had gone
Pick the correct option:
I ______
saw
had seen
Pick the correct option:
When we reached, the film ______
already started
Pick the correct option:
I ______
have walked
walked
Pick the correct option:
Did you think you ______
saw
had seen
were seeing
Pick the correct option:
When I ______
had
did had
Pick the correct option:
Men ______
never managed
Pick the correct option:
She jumped off the bus while it ______
moved
had moved
Pick the correct option:
What ______
were you doing when I called
Pick the correct option:
I was sitting in a cafe when you ______
called
Pick the correct option:
When you ______
arrived
were arriving
Pick the correct option:
Sushie ______
was watching
watched
Pick the correct option:
Yesterday, I went to the library, next I had a swim, later I ______
met
was meeting
Pick the correct option:
We ______
were playing
played
Pick the correct option:
What ______
were they doing
they did
Pick the correct option:
He was taking a shower when the phone ______
rang
was ringing
Pick the correct option:
When I walked into the room, everyone ______
was working
worked
Pick the correct option:
He ______
was
was being
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