Grammar
notes: past tenses
Past
simple
The past simple is used:
to talk about completed actions in
the past:
My brother got a
new job in Madrid last week.
What did he say when you told him?
Shakespeare died in 1616.
to talk about habits in the past:
We always had roast
beef on Sundays when I was a boy.
We never went abroad for our holidays until
the 1970s.
I travelled by bus until I passed my driving
test.
to talk about events that happened
one after the other:
He jumped out
of bed, ran into the bathroom and slammed the
door.
I came, I saw,
I conquered.
Past continuous
The past continuous is used:
to talk about an activity in progress
at a particular time in the past:
What were
you doing at 9 o'clock on the night of the murder?
At 9 o'clock I was getting the dinner ready.
At 2 o'clock everyone was having lunch.
to describe a situation or activity:
Cars were
speeding past and people were hurrying towards
the station.
It was raining so hard that everyone was
sheltering in doorways.
He was wearing his best suit.
when a past action is interrupted
by a shorter action:
I was walking along
the road when it started to rain.
Someone knocked on the door as I was
getting dressed.
I was wondering what to do when the phone rang.
when a past action takes place during
another, longer past action or state:
She was living in
Madrid when she met her husband.
I decided to give up smoking while I was
working in the hospital.
I was learning Arabic when I got the
chance to visit Egypt.
Past
simple and past continuous
As far as Spanish speakers are concerned,
the main thing that you should remember is that you have more verb
tenses in Spanish than we have in English.
trabajé
|
I worked
|
trabajaba
|
-----
|
estaba trabajando
|
I was
working
|
estuve trabajando
|
-----
|
Even though it might sound strange
to you, you need to use the correct English tense according to the
rules. Look at the following examples which could help:
When we arrived she made some
tea. (One action followed another)
When we arrived she was
making some tea. (She was in the middle of making it)
I painted the
living room yesterday. (I finished it)
I was painting the living room yesterday, (I
did part of it)
He drowned.
(He's dead)
He was drowning. (I jumped in and saved him)
He hit his
brother. (Single action)
He was hitting his brother. (Repeated activity)
The old pub stood by
the river near the bridge. (Permanent)
He was standing outside the pub waiting for
it to open. (Temporary)
Past
perfect simple and continuous
The past perfect simple expresses
an action that happened before a definite time in the past:
I got to
his house at 10 o'clock, but he had already
left.
She started to cry because she had
had such a terrible day.
I asked him if he wanted a
coffee but he had already had one.
The continuous is used for longer
activities that had been going on up to a definite time in the past:
He was a
wreck. He hadn't been sleeping well
because he'd been worrying so much about
his money problems.
The continuous is used for repeated
or continuous activities, while the simple is used for completed or
single actions:
He was drunk.
He had been drinking all day. (Repeated
activity)
He was drunk. He had drunk a
whole bottle of whisky. (Completed action)
Past
perfect and past simple
The past simple can tell a story
in chronological order:
She was all
alone in the world. Her parents got divorced when
she was a girl, her sister got married and went to
live in Canada, and her boyfriend left her
after five years of living together.
The past perfect can be used for
dramatic effect, looking from one point in the past to another point
even further in the past:
She was all
alone in the world. Her parents had got divorced when
she was a girl, her sister had got married and gone to
live in Canada, and her boyfriend had left her
after five years of living together.
The past simple can be used when
one action follows another and it's obvious that it happened afterwards:
When the doorbell rang I got
up to answer it.
I heard the milkman and went to
order an extra carton of milk.
If it's important to show that the
second action started after the first one was completed, the first
action must be in the past perfect:
When I had
finished reading the paper, I threw it
away.
I didn't leave the house until I had
made sure that all the windows were closed.
Links
to exercises and pdf files
Gapfill exercise
- online
Gapfill exercise
- pdf file for download or printing
Grammar
notes from this page - pdf file for download
or printing
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