Simple continuous and perfect past/Examples of past tense

Past tense deals with whatever is said before “Now“, whether it is simple, continuous and perfect past tense. Simply, it means that to describe past activities, actions, states, and conditions we use past tense.

Understanding simple, continuous and perfect past tense

Like present tense, past tense has also four sub-types such as “Simple, continuous, perfect past, and perfect continuous past tense.

Examples of simple, continuous, and perfect past tense

1.Last year, we suffered from coronavirus pandemic. (simple past with time reference)

2.Initially, panic was spreading like wildfire. (continuous past with definite time references)

3.Millions of people across world had been experiencing difficulties until the vaccine developed. (past perfect continuous tense with conjunction of time)

4.Unfortunately, many people had lost their jobs when the respective governments declared knockdowns (past perfect tense with conjunction of time)

Table of simple, continuous and perfect past tense

No.	types of past tense	Conjugated verbs	Time reference
1	Simple past	Past form of regular and irregular verb/ no helping verbs / did for negative and interrogative	Both definite and indefinite time references
2	Continuous past	+ ing/ helping verbs of “to be”	Define time references or with time conjunctions
3	Perfect past ( past of the past)	Past participle of regular and irregular / helping verb “to have”	Conjunction for time used to indicate time reference
4	Perfect continuous past	Had + been + present participle ( in)	When, until, before, etc are used to express time reference.

Table 1. Types of past tense

Explanation of major characteristics of past tense

Strictly speaking, despite “Verb tense” past time reference is necessary to bring more clarity of utterances.
Because, “Verb tense” shows the tense of action or activity not exact time.

John applied for job. (Applied-past form of regular verb)

Grammatically, above simple past sentence is correct. It has past form of verb “applied”. It shows that this is a past tense.

Reference of time in past tense

But, for proper sense of meaning, it fails to make clear impact.
So, we need to answer the “when” question to make better sense.

Last week, John applied for job.

Last week, John applied for job. Or, John applied for job as soon as he completed his course. In this way, time reference is much more than verb tense.

My dad was working in the leading news channel when I was ten years old. (when I was ten years old — time reference)
Two to three decades ago, there were hardly any communication facilities available at the village level. (adverbial of time and main clause in simple past)

When we break above example, “My dad was working in the leading news channel. When I was ten years old.” (one is progressive past and other is simple past)

Logically, both cannot make proper sense of meaning independently.

Hence, sometimes, two clauses of past tense become necessary to make better sense.

But, in other case, adverbial of time acts as substitute for time reference.

And, it is often observed that two sub-types of past tense are used in a single sentence to make proper time sense.

In terms of verb tense, the conjugated past forms of verb is used as per the state of action or activity.

Difference between Regular and irregular verb for past tense

In the following table, I’m showing conjugated forms of irregular verbs

No.	Base form	Past form	Past participle
1	Blow	Blew	Blown
2	Sing	Sang	Sung
3	Grow	Grew	Grown
4	Give	Gave	Given
5	Ride	Ride	Ridden
6	Sit	Sat	Sat
7	Drive	Drove	Driven
8	Think	Thought	Thought

Table 2. Irregular verbs and conjugated forms

Now, let’s see some examples of regular verbs and conjugated forms.

No.	Base form	Past form	Past participle
1	Bake	baked	baked
2	Climb	climbed	climbed
3	Walk	walked	walked
4	Arrive	arrived	arrived
5	Chop	chopped	chopped
6	Panic	panicked	panicked
7	Copy	copied	copied
8	Gather	gathered	gathered
9	Dance	danced	danced

Table 3. Conjugated forms of regular verbs in past tense

Helping verbs have no place in the formation of simple past except “did”. But, in continuous and perfect, past form of “to be and have” play important role.

“To have and to do” work as main verb in simple past tense.

I had a serious elbow injury when I was selected for national team.
It was a challenge for me. But, I did it. Actually, I often did it earlier.

Moreover, past forms of modal verbs have same role and place to express past modalities though in limited degrees.

As far as my knowledge is concerned, you could swim in the floody waters when you were eighteen years.

Actually, “action or dynamic verbs” are more used to describe past activities, habits, actions. Whereas, “Stative verbs” indicate state, qualities, and conditions.

Daily, we went for watering plants in our park whenever there were holidays.
I could remember that she was upset when she declared disqualified.

Usually, in each sub-types of past tense, time reference, whether it is point of time, period of time or adverbials are used to indicate past activities. Let’s learn through explanation of past tense.

Steps in formation of simple past tense

Simple past tense is used to describe the action occurred completely in the past. In the simple past, expression of time is worthy to mention. Hence, it is also called a “Basic form of past tense” for complete past actions.

Role of adverbial of time in the formation of simple past tense

To differentiate simple past from the present perfect tense, time’s expressions are highly essential.

There are two types of time expressions — definite and indefinite time. Both are equally used to form simple past.

We went for picnic yesterday.
It rained heavily at five o’clock.
Last night, he completed his assignment.
They invited you day before yesterday.
A long time ago, we met in the book fair.
They missed the train when I reached the station.
I visited Tirupati temple when I was ten years old.

Use of simple past tense – to describe habitual action

We know that there are countless actions that we express daily as a part of habit. For this, simple past tense is the best means to express.

It was my daily routine to go for swimming at six o’clock.
People used to go for a walk every morning.
She used to practice for singing every day.
Children always went to play in the garden after school.

Use of simple past tense For period of time

If the effect of action is beyond the point of time, in such situation, simple past tense is usually used to indicate action occurred in the period of time.

Really surprisingly, he worked continuously for a decade without rest.
He played for his country for five years.
He represented India in the Asian games for ten years.
As a teacher, he taught consistently for two decades.
They helped me for many years.

Rules of Formation of simple past tense

In order to make simple past tense, in the assertive sentence, second form of verb (regular or irregular verbs) is taken.
But, in the negative, as well as interrogative sentences, ‘Did not’ and ‘Did’ is used.

Assertive sentences: – subject + verb’s second form + object or any complements.

He + played + for his country when he was in twenties.
His reforms + created + many opportunities in the last decade.
They + invested + a lot of money in last month.
She + gave + her first interview at the age of fifteen.

Negative sentences:- subject + did + not + base form of verb + object or any complements.

He + did + not + play + for his country when he was in twenties.
She + did + not + give + her first interview at the age of fifteen.

Interrogative sentences:– inversion of subject means did replaces subject + subject + base form of verb + object or any complements + ?

He practiced well to play football on last Sunday. (Assertive)

He did not practice well to play football on last Sunday. (Negative)

Did he practice well to play football on last Sunday? (Interrogative)

Did he not practice well to play football on last Sunday? (Interrogative)

Formation of simple past tense with “Be” (was, were)

The formation of simple past tense with the form of “Be” like, was, were are very important to describe the state condition in the past time.

He was so poor when he was child.
They were absent in the last meeting.
She was totally absent due to unexpected results in her latest exam.
He wasn’t comfortable in his first interview in last week.

This is enough to know about the formation of simple past tense.

Understanding past continuous and past perfect tense

Past continuous and past perfect tense are used to describe ongoing, continuous past actions and completed past actions respectively.

Past perfect tense is also called “Past of the past” as it describes the actions happened in the complete past.

In the formation of perfect past, it is related with simple past tense to show the perfect or completed actions.

Simple past tense is the basic or general past used to express past actions, events, or state of being with general time references.

I saw the Ganga River when we visited Himalayan region.

Once, it was a barren wasteland.
On the other hand, continuous past describes the ongoing past actions with specific time references.

In summer, hot wind was blowing there. Hence, we were suffering from dehydration.
He was addressing a rally on Sunday when I called him for interview.
Suddenly, she saw a snake when she was jogging in the early morning.

Continuous past needs conjugated forms of verb with -ing, and helping verbs such as “to be”

Past continuous can be used with other tense forms as well.

Explaining formation of continuous past tense

Continuous past tense expresses continuous actions or activities either in distant past or recent past.

In short, it indicates specific time references to current utterance.

Progressive past to indicate distant past

In the Czar rule, Russian were struggling to meet basic needs.
European countries were competing with one another to capture market in the post industrial revolution.

Recent past by continuous past tense

Day before, players were seriously practicing for important match.
Really, they were playing beautifully when it started raining.
Yesterday, as soon as I opened my eyes I saw it was raining heavily outside.
I reached at the school when students were writing exam.

Describing Correct use of perfect paste and simple past tense

After past continuous and past perfect tense, comparative study between simple past and perfect past tense is necessary.

To show the action completed in past, past perfect tense is used. It is also termed as “Past of the past“. Generally, it is used with simple past tense.

Here, conjugated forms of have, main verb and time references are key necessary components to form perfect past.

Had + past participle + before + simple past

Simply, used to describe before of the before at the time of expression.

We had covered our food grains before it started raining. (before- conjunction of time indicates time of reference)
They had reached at the hospital before we arranged ambulance. (we were trying to arrange an ambulance but before that they reached at the hospital)
She looked so weak as she hadn’t recovered totally.
My mom had already cooked when we reached for dinner.

In this type, one action follows other just completed. It means that completed action shows past perfect and later in the simple past.

“Before” conjunction of time is necessary to show two different actions in sequence.

Time reference in the form of adverbial is not necessary to form perfect past tense. Actually, it is highlighted by “before”.

This is all about the simple, continuous and perfect past tense. I have explained meaning, rules of formation, and examples of simple, continuous and perfect past tense.