The document discusses various uses of verb tenses in the past, including: - Simple past to denote completed past actions and events. - Past continuous to indicate ongoing or habitual past actions. - Past perfect to denote earlier past actions that occurred before something else in the past. - Past perfect continuous to show an ongoing past action that started earlier and continued up until another past time. The document provides examples for each use and clarifies appropriate contexts for each verb tense when referring to past time.

2.  To denote an action or event that
occurred in the past
My grandfather died last year
India became Independent in 1947
 To denote habitual action in the past but
does not happen anymore
Last year I walked back home every
evening
When I was in Bombay. I went to the
beach every week-end

3.  To denote habitual action in the past but
does not happen anymore
Last year I walked back home every evening
When I was in Bombay. I went to the beach
every week-end

4.  To indicate the continuity of a past action
I was writing letters all the morning.
He was talking all the morning.
 To denote an activity that was continuing, when another action
took place
It was raining when the match ended.
When he came in, we were playing cards.

5.  To indicate two activities continuing at the
same time.
He was reading while I was writing.
She was listening while I was talking.
 To denote repeated action
He was always clamoring for higher wages.
I got angry because he was again looking
through the window.

6.  To indicate the earlier of two past actions
 The latter action is indicated by simple past tense
The train had left by the time I reached the station.
We had finished our breakfast when he came in.
The police came only after the thief had escaped.
 The Past Perfect should not be used when there is only one past
event or activity referred to.
I had seen Delhi in 1990. (wrong )
I had seen the Taj when I went to Delhi. (Right)
 To use Indirect Speech
The boy said that he had done the homework
 In Subordinate Clauses of Rejected Condition
If he had worked hard, he could have passed

7.  The Past Perfect should not be used when there is only one past
event or activity referred to.
I had seen Delhi in 1990. (wrong )
I had seen the Taj when I went to Delhi. (Right)
 To use Indirect Speech
The boy said that he had done the homework
 In Subordinate Clauses of Rejected Condition
If he had worked hard, he could have passed

8.  The Past Perfect Continuous Tense denotes an
action which started sometime in the past and
continued without break till a later point of time
in the past when something else happened.
I had been reading for hours before he came.
He had been undergoing training when I met him

9.  In Reported Speech, the Present Perfect
Continuous becomes the Past Perfect
Continuous
Q-He said, “I have been working hard for
a month”.
A-He said that he had been working hard
for a month.