ENGLISH NOTE 6 - SIMPLE PAST, PAST CONTINUOUS, PAST PERFECT

ENGLISH NOTE 6 

TENSES

As requested by Mr.Srinivasan Sankar,  I am explaining to you English Tenses. He has specifically asked me to clarify SIMPLE PAST,  PAST PERFECT and PAST CONTINUOUS . Further he wants to know how to identify. This post will focus on the queries raised by him.

SIMPLE PAST

Simple past as the name indicates  can be identified by just one word which indicates it. Simple past is used to express an action which happened in the past and is completed. Following examples will make it clear.

Rama went to school at 9am.

I finished my work.

My brother telephoned me yesterday .

In the above examples, please note that the verbs in Simple Past are  WENT, FINISHED, TELEPHONED etc.

In all these examples, action is in the past and it is completed.

I think I have made the point clear.

Another point to note is that when we express a simple past in a negative sentence , you actually require three words for that purpose.

Note the following examples.

Rama did not go to school today.

My brother did not call me today.

I did not finish my work today.

Therefore to express the action negatively in the past , we use the structure,

" did not go" , " did not call", " did not finish "

In general ,

Did + not +  simple present form of relevant verb.

Now I am sure , you are clear about simple past .

PAST CONTINUOUS 

As the name implies,  past continuous tense expresses an action in the past which was happening . In other words, that action in the past was not completed. Actually , an action was going on in the past . It was continuing . It is also called past progressive tense. Now observe the following examples.

Yesterday  , I was watching Cricket World Cup from 8AM to 1 PM.

Last Sunday , I was correcting answer books of my students.

During my last summer vacation , from 5am to 6am, I was practicing Yoga.

When you want to highlight the fact of an action which was going on, you can use past continuous .

How to identify past continuous ?

Was / were + verb in present form + ing

Remember past continuous requires two words to express it.  It has two parts. The first part will be either " WAS " or " WERE". The second part is a GERUND form , which ends in - ing.

Have you understood ?

PAST PERFECT.

When two actions happen in the past, surely one action happens before the second action. We use past perfect for the action which happened prior to the second action. The following

examples will make it clear.

When I reached my friend's place, he had already left for office.

In the above sentence , two actions have been expressed.

1. Reached

2. Had left

Both the actions took place in the past . But the act of leaving his place was prior to your reaching . So the prior action is in the past perfect tense. " HAD LEFT". 

Reaching his place is expressed in Simple past . " REACHED".

How to identify PAST PERFECT?

HAD + Past participle of the relevant verb.

In the above case  ,the past participle of " leave " is left.

Hope it is clear.

All queries are welcome.

I shall continue my posts for all the other tenses.

Sayee Jayaraman 

16/02/2015