English tenses course- lesson 3

1. English Tenses
Verónica Esteban Díaz

2. LESSON 3
 Objective:
 Learn past tenses and its uses
 Past simple
 Past continuous
 Past perfect
 Past perfect continuous

3. PAST SIMPLE
FORMS
 Positive
Subject
-ed is used for regular verbs, for irregular verbs see this list

4. PAST SIMPLE
FORMS
 Negative
Subject Auxiliar
There is not neccesary to put –ed after the verb because it is in the auxiliar.

5. PAST SIMPLE
FORMS
 Interrogative
Auxiliar Subject
There is not neccesary to put –ed after the verb because it is in the auxiliar.

6. EXAMPLES
 Positive:
I went to the doctor yesterday
 Negative:
I didn’t watch TV
 Interrogative:
Did you eat meat?

7. USES
 To talk about completed actions in the past
He played the piano
 To talk about events which occurred regularly in the past
I travelled a lot when I was young.
 To talk about a serie of actions in the past
I received bad news and immediatelly I started to cry

8. ADVERBS
 Past simple employs adverbs of time that implies finished actions
 Adverbs of time
Yesterday, this morning, when….
Last month, last year, last night, last Friday…

9. EXERCISES
 http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-exercise-simple-
past.php
 http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/past-simple-exercise-7.html
 http://www.learn-english-online.org/Lesson29/TestIt/SimplePast.htm

10. PAST CONTINUOUS
FORMS
 Positive
Subject Auxiliar
The auxiliar is the verb to be, was for the first and third person of the singular and were for
plural and the pronoun you

11. PAST CONTINUOUS
FORMS
 Negative
Subject Auxiliar
The auxiliar is the verb to be, was not/wasn’t for the first and third person of the singular and
were not/weren’t for plural and the pronoun you

12. PAST CONTINUOUS
FORMS
 Interrogative
Auxiliar Subject
The auxiliar is the verb to be, was for the first and third person of the singular and were for
plural and the pronoun you

13. EXAMPLES
 Positive:
I was playing basketball/You were playing basketball/
 Negative:
She wasn’t reading a magazine/We were not reading a magazine
 Interrogative:
Was I singing last night?/Were they reading last night?

14. USES
 To talk about an action in progress in the past that was interrupted
I was talking with you when the pone rang
 To talk about an action in a concrete time of the past
I wasn’t living here in 2001
 To talk about two situations happening at the same time in the past
I was writing while you were reading
 To emphasise repeated actions that take place over a temporary period
During a year, she was studying in an academy

15. ADVERBS
 Past continuous employs time expressions that implies interrupted actions or in a
concrete time
 Time expressions
While, in 2000, during …

16. EXERCISES
 http://www.englisch-hilfen.de/en/exercises/questions/past_progressive.htm
 http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/past-continuous-exercise-1.html
 http://www.myenglishpages.com/site_php_files/grammar-exercise-past-
progressive.php

17. PAST PERFECT
FORMS
 Positive
Subject Auxiliar

18. PAST PERFECT
FORMS
 Negative
Subject Auxiliar

19. PAST PERFECT
FORMS
 Interrogative
Auxiliar Subject

20. EXAMPLES
 Positive:
I had talked to Sheila
 Negative:
I hadn’t been there
 Interrogative:
Had you travelled to London?

21. USES
 To refer to an event which took place before something else
I had forgotten the purse when I left my house
 To talk about actions in a specified time of the past
She had moved in 2010
 To talk about situations that started in the past and continued until a specified point in time
I had been depressed for along time before I went to the doctor

22. EXERCISES
 http://www.perfect-english-grammar.com/past-perfect-exercise-1.html
 http://mrbrownslearningspace.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/01/Past_Perfect_1.htm
 https://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/past-perfect-simple/exercises

23. PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS
FORMS
 Positive
Subject Auxiliar

24. PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS
FORMS
 Negative
Subject Auxiliar

25. PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS
FORMS
 Interrogative
Auxiliar Subject

26. EXAMPLES
 Positive:
I had been walking for two hours when my boss called me
 Negative:
I hadn’t been watching this serie since last month
 Interrogative:
Had you been waiting for me?

27. USES
 To refer to a progressive situation which took place before something else
I have been working for hours when my mum rang
 To demonstrate cause and effect
You were tired because you had been running a lot of hours
 To stress the continuity of an event at an earlier point in time
My keys had been missing for a month when I found them under the bed

28. ADVERBS
 Past perfect continuous employs prepositions of time because they refer to the
duration of time
 Prepositions of time
For, since…

29. EXERCISES
 http://www.englishgrammarsecrets.com/pastperfectcontinuous/exercise1.swf
 https://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/past-perfect-
progressive/exercises
 http://mrbrownslearningspace.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/01/Past_Perfect_Progressive_2.htm