USAGE OF PAST TENSE

Name- Shriyana Kutal

Class- 8(Red)
Roll.no- 21
Subject- English
Introduction
Dictionary defines the term ‘past tense’ as “the used to describe actions in
the past.” According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the form of a verbpast
tense form of the verb is “used to describe verb forms in many languages
used for actions that have now finished.”The tense of a verb group is its
form, which usually shows whether you are referring to past, present, or
future time.

Uses of past tense

The past tense is a verb tense used to talk about past actions, states of
being, or events. There are four past tense forms: the past simple (e.g., “you
cooked”), the past progressive (e.g., “he was singing”), the past perfect (e.g.,
“I had arrived”), and the past perfect progressive (e.g., “They had been
driving”). They are also used for to talk about the past, to talk about
hypotheses (when we imagine something), for politeness.
Formula of past tense
The simple past tense of regular verbs is formed by adding “-ed” to the
infinitive form of the verb (e.g., “cook” becomes “cooked”). Most verbs
in the simple past take the same form regardless of the subject (e.g.,
“He worked/we worked”).

Some Examples of past tense

- Lisa went to the supermarket yesterday.
- Sam cooked a tasty dinner yesterday.
- I washed the dishes.
Types of past tense
1. Simple past tense- The simple past tense is a verb form used to
refer to an action or series of actions that were completed in the
past. Formula for simple past tense is Subject + V2 + Object.
For Example,
- My sister hated broccoli when she was a child.
- Sheldon didn't have friends as a child.
- People wrote letters to communicate in the past.
2. Past continuous tense
The past continuous tense is employed in a sentence to represent an
action or event that was going on in the past. In other words, it shows
the progress of the action or event at a specific time in the past. The
formula is. Subject + was/were + (verb + -ing) + object + other words.
Examples- It was snowing yesterday.
- They were eating at the restaurant.
-You were working yesterday.
3. Past perfect tense
The past perfect tense is a verb form used to describe a past action that
occurred before another past action. The past perfect is formed using
the auxiliary verb “had” and the past participle of the main verb. The
past perfect form of “go” is “had gone”. The formula is the past tense of
the verb to have (had) + the past participle of the main verb.
For example
- I had finished the work.
- I had been working there for a year.
-When George died, he and Anne had been married for nearly fifty
years.
4. Past perfect continuous tense
The past perfect continuous tense denotes an action that started in the
past, continued in the past, and also ended at a certain point in the
past. The formula is had been + [present participle (root form of verb
+ -ing)].
For example
- Had you been waiting long before the taxi arrived?
- We had been trying to open the door for five minutes when Jane found
her key.
- It had been raining hard for several hours and the streets were very
wet.
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