REVIEW OF TENSES II

PAST
Past Simple; Past Continuous

 used often with dates, times or places, for finished events, whether they are long, short, or repeated
The Mughal Empire controlled a large part of the India for more than 300 years.
During the summer of 2010, Theatrespace put on a new show every week for twelve weeks.
 if events overlap or 'interrupt' one another, the past continuous is used for the longer 'background‘ event
Brooks Brothers of New York were performing reasonably well when the
takeover bid came from Marks and Spencers.
 state verbs, however, are not normally used in the continuous form
used to; would + infinitive

 an alternative to past simple

Before the Clean Air Act of 1956, London used to/would suffer from severe air
pollution known as 'smog', a combination of smoke and fog.
 would is not normally used with state verbs, and used to is not used with numbers of
months, years, etc.
Pompas Products used to own a subsidiary in Florida, but they were obliged to sell it to
recoup their Iosses during the recession of the early 1980s.
The company's headquarters were located in Berlin for eight years. (not: used to be located)
Past Perfect

 used to talk about a past event which happened before another past event
Trade union representatives returned (past) to the talks on Friday 17 May, but by this time the
management team had already withdrawn (earlier past) their offer.
 commonly used after past simple forms of verbs connected with speaking or thinking such as admit, agree,
believe, claim, confirm, deny, know, realize
A number of MPs claimed that Tony Blair had misled parliament during the debates over the
Iraq war.
Most observers agreed that the merger had taken place too quickly.
References

 Paterson, K. & Wedge, R. (2013) Oxford Grammar for EAP. English Grammar and Practice for Academic
Purposes. Oxford: OUP, pp. 8 – 10.