Types Of Past Tense
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00Hi friends! Today we will learn about past tense in detail. So let's get started.
00:09The past tense is used to describe an action or situation that has already taken place.
00:17And there are four types of past tense.
00:20Simple past or past indefinite tense.
00:25Past continuous or progressive tense.
00:29Past perfect tense.
00:31Past perfect continuous or progressive tense.
00:36So let's learn all these types of past tense one by one.
00:41Simple past tense.
00:44It is used to express an action in the past or that was completed before the time of speaking.
00:52For instance, the soldiers fought the war bravely.
00:56Here, the soldiers have already fought the war.
01:01Harry won the first prize.
01:04Here, Harry has already won the prize.
01:09The bottles fell down the shelf.
01:12Here, the bottles have already fallen down from the shelf.
01:17Now, let us learn the rule for forming a sentence in simple past tense.
01:24Subject plus second form of the verb plus object.
01:31Andes did his work honestly.
01:34Here, Andes is a subject.
01:37Did is a second form of the verb of do.
01:41And work is the object in the sentence.
01:44And the sentence implies that the work is already done by Andes.
01:52The cat ran after the mouse.
01:55Here, the cat is a subject.
01:58Ran is a second part of the verb.
02:01And mouse is the object in the sentence.
02:05And the sentence implies that the cat was running behind the mouse in the past and is no longer running.
02:13The bomb exploded after a few minutes.
02:17Here, the bomb is the subject.
02:20Exploded is the second form of the verb explode.
02:25And the sentence implies that the bomb exploded in the past.
02:30Here, we have some more examples of simple past tense.
02:35The girls performed their dance.
02:38The boys bathed in the river.
02:41The women drank their tea.
02:44The police came late at the site.
02:47They went for a movie.
02:50So, all these sentences are in simple past tense.
02:54And they depict things or activities that had happened in the past.
03:00Now, let's learn about past progressive or continuous tense.
03:06Past continuous or progressive tense shows an action being in progress at some particular time in the past.
03:15For example, Sam was walking along the river.
03:20Here, the action of walking was in progress but in the past.
03:25That is, Sam is no longer walking.
03:29Here, we have another example.
03:31The farmers were working in the field.
03:35Here, the sentence shows that the farmers were working in the past and no longer working.
03:43Here, we have another example.
03:46She was practicing her dance.
03:49Here, the sentence means that the action of practicing was in progress but in the past.
03:56And she is no longer practicing.
04:00Now, let's learn the rule to form a sentence in past progressive tense.
04:06Subject plus was or were plus first form of the verb along with ing and then is the object.
04:18The carpenter was mending the chair.
04:21Here, the carpenter is the subject.
04:25Was is the helping verb.
04:27And we have used was because the subject is singular.
04:32Mending is the verb which is the first form of the verb mend along with ing to express the progressive tense.
04:42Chair is the object in the sentence.
04:47Here, we have another example.
04:49We were chatting in the interval.
04:53Here, the subject is we.
04:56And we have used the helping verb were because the subject is plural.
05:01And chatting is the verb which is first form of the verb chat along with ing to show a continuous or a progressive action.
05:14Here, we have some more examples.
05:17The baby was sleeping peacefully on the bed.
05:20Here, the subject is the baby which is singular.
05:25So, we have used the helping verb was.
05:29Sleeping is the verb which is first form of the verb sleep along with ing to show a continuous action.
05:39Let's have a look at some more examples.
05:43The car was overtaking the bus.
05:46His high ambitions were landing him in difficulties.
05:51The grocer was selling the articles at throwaway prices.
05:57Harry was standing and laughing in the streets.
06:01The cobbler was mending the shoes.
06:04So, all these examples are in past progressive tense.
06:08Now, we will learn about past perfect tense.
06:13The past perfect tense shows an action completed before a certain moment in the past before another action began or completed.
06:23Let's try to learn with the help of examples.
06:27The rain had stopped when we went out to attend the meeting.
06:32In this example, the rain has stopped before we went out.
06:37That is, the action of the stopping of rain completed before the action of going out.
06:44In this sentence, both the actions happened in the past, but the stopping of rain.
06:50This action happened first.
06:54So, this action is expressed in past perfect tense, while the other one is expressed in simple past tense.
07:02For the past perfect tense, we used had plus third form of verb.
07:08And for simple past tense, we used the second form of the verb.
07:14The plane had left before we reached the airport.
07:18Here, both the action happened in the past, but the action that happened first is expressed in past perfect tense.
07:26That is, by using had and third form of the verb.
07:31The plane had left.
07:33Because this action happened first, and the action that happened next is expressed in simple past tense.
07:40That is, by using the second form of the verb, we reached the airport.
07:47Here we have some more examples.
07:50Mary had completed her homework before I could help her.
07:55We had already purchased tickets when he reached.
07:59I couldn't read the newspaper because it came late.
08:04I didn't find any mistakes in his work because he had done his work with perfection.
08:12Now let's learn past perfect continuous or progressive tense in detail.
08:19Past perfect continuous or progressive tense is used to describe a continuous action that completed in the past.
08:29For example,
08:32They had been swimming for more than eight hours before they reached the shore.
08:38She had been waiting for the bus for more than an hour before the bus came.
08:44Mary gained a lot of weight because she had been eating unhealthy food since the last two years.
08:52They had been living in Canada for last five years before they shifted to UK.
09:01And you can see, in order to expect the past perfect progressive tense, we use had with been and first form of the verb along with ing.
09:12Okay friends, so today we learned many types of past tense.
09:18Now you may go ahead and take a quiz to learn more.
09:22Bye-bye!