In this tense article we are going to discuss about types of past tense and learn about the rules and their uses with the help of examples.
As we know by our experience that Tenses work as the heart of English grammar, without which there is no soul in it. It’s not very difficult to form a meaningful sentence in past when you all the 4 past tenses. One just have to know the rules, person’s role and the tense.
In English there are a total of 4 past tense forms and we’ll have a look at each of them to understand types of Past Tense and Their Structure Properties
1. Simple Past Tense
The Simple past tense is also know as past indefinite tense and it talks about any action that happened in the past.
When we write sentences in simple past we follow this formula : (Subject + past tense of the verb + object).
Its time for some examples –
- I wrote
- We wrote
- She wrote
- They wrote
- It wrote
To learn more, view this past indefinite tense examples guide to give you more understanding of this tense.
2. Past Continuous Tense
The past Continuous or past progressive tense talks about any continuous action that happened in the past.
When we write sentences in simple past we follow this formula : (Subject + was / were + ‘ing’ form of the verb + object).
Now time for some examples –
- I was writing
- We were writing
- You were writing
- He was writing
- She was writing
- It was writing
- They were writing
Still not convinced, view this past progressive tense examplesguide to give you more understanding of this tense.
3. Past Perfect Tense
The past perfect tense talks about any completed action that happened before other action started in the past.
When we write sentences in past perfect tense we follow this formula : (Subject + had + Past Participle form of the verb + object).
Let us look at some examples –
- I had written
- We had written
- You had written
- He had written
- She had written
- It had written
- They had written
You can learn more about this tense separately using our past perfect tense structure and usage guide.
4. Past Perfect Continuous Tense
The past perfect continuous is also called past progressive tense and it talks about the completion of continuous action that happened before other action started in the past.
When we write sentences in past perfect continuous tense we follow this formula (Subject + had + been + ‘ing’ form of the verb + object)
Take a look at some examples to understand the working of formula
- I had been writing
- We had been writing
- You had been writing
- He had been writing
- It had been writing
- They had been writing
Use past perfect progressive tense rules and use guide, If You want to know more about this tense.
Keep exploring EnglishBix to learn more about different types of tenses and how they are used in sentence formation.