The past tense is divided into modes:
- Past simple
- Past continuous
Past simple
The past simple describes an event or action that has finished. Very often the past simple uses the past tense inflection -ed, but there are also a number of irregular verbs.
| 1. |
Sarah watched television last night. |
| 2. |
They walked home together after the party. |
Past continuous
The past continuous is used for describing a person in the middle of doing something at a certain time in the past. At that time the action had not finished yet.
| 3. |
This time last year I was living abroad. |
| 4. |
What were you doing at 10 o'clock last night? |
I started doing |
I was doing |
I finished doing |
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past |
now |
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