Past Tenses: Simple, Perfect, Continuous - English Grammar

Past tenses
Past simple
Past perfect
Past continuous
Past perfect continuous

Past Simple
•Most common past tense
•Formed by adding ‘ed’ to verbs (regular verbs)
Walkwalked
Pushpushed
Wavewaved
•Irregular verbs do not follow the above pattern:
Gowent
Drivedrove
Eatate

•Used for actions that began and ended in the past. For example:
I drove to the beach yesterday
Last night I met a friend at a party
He walked the dog two hours ago

Past perfect
•Formed with ‘had’ + past participle
… had (not) been… … had (not) walked … … had (not) met …
Examples:
It had been a great holiday before the rain started
She had not spoken to him until he brought her a gift
By the time Karim got home, Lina had already left
•Used for actions that began and ended in the past
•Shows one action happened before another

•Past perfect clause happens earlier than simple past clause
•Used with conditional sentences
If I had studied harder, I would have passed my test