🌟 Past Tense (Detailed Lesson)
The Past Tense has 4 forms:
1. Simple Past
2. Past Continuous
3. Past Perfect
4. Past Perfect Continuous
1️⃣ Simple Past Tense
🔹 When do we use it?
1. Completed actions in the past
👉 “I visited Delhi last year.”
2. Past habits
👉 “He always played cricket in school.”
3. Actions in a sequence
👉 “I woke up, brushed my teeth, and went to work.”
🔹 Structure
✅ Positive: Subject + V2 + Object
✅ Negative: Subject + did not + V1 + Object
✅ Question: Did + Subject + V1 + Object?
🔹 Examples
I studied English yesterday.
She went to the market.
They didn’t watch TV last night.
Did you complete your work?
We played cricket on Sunday.
2️⃣ Past Continuous Tense
🔹 When do we use it?
1. Action happening at a specific time in the past
👉 “I was reading a book at 8 PM yesterday.”
2. Two actions happening at the same time
👉 “She was cooking while he was watching TV.”
3. Interrupted action in the past
👉 “I was sleeping when the phone rang.”
🔹 Structure
✅ Positive: Subject + was/were + V1+ing + Object
✅ Negative: Subject + was/were + not + V1+ing + Object
✅ Question: Was/Were + Subject + V1+ing + Object?
🔹 Examples
I was working on my laptop yesterday evening.
She was singing a song.
They weren’t playing football at that time.
Were you watching the movie yesterday?
We were waiting for the bus when it started raining.
3️⃣ Past Perfect Tense
🔹 When do we use it?
1. To show one action happened before another action in the past
👉 “I had finished my homework before my friend came.”
2. To show something was completed before a point in the past
👉 “She had already left when I arrived.”
🔹 Structure
✅ Positive: Subject + had + V3 + Object
✅ Negative: Subject + had + not + V3 + Object
✅ Question: Had + Subject + V3 + Object?
🔹 Examples
I had eaten dinner before you called.
She had never seen snow before her trip to Germany.
They hadn’t completed the project by Friday.
Had you studied English before moving abroad?
We had finished the meeting when the manager joined.
4️⃣ Past Perfect Continuous Tense
🔹 When do we use it?
1. To show an action was happening for some time before another
action in the past
👉 “I had been working for 2 hours before he arrived.”
2. To describe duration of a past action
👉 “She had been studying all night before the exam.”
🔹 Structure
✅ Positive: Subject + had + been + V1+ing + Object (+ for/since)
✅ Negative: Subject + had + not + been + V1+ing + Object
✅ Question: Had + Subject + been + V1+ing + Object?
🔹 Examples
I had been waiting for 30 minutes before the bus came.
She had been practicing dance for months before the show.
They hadn’t been working hard before the deadline.
Had you been learning English before you joined the class?
We had been living in Hyderabad for 5 years before we moved.
✅ Now you have the full detailed explanation of all 4 Past Tenses (like
we did for Present).
👉 Do you want me to prepare a practice set (fill in blanks / correct
sentences / speaking practice) for Past Tense, just like we did for Present?
