skip navigation
 

Young man thinking about speeding ticketspeedingPast Complete

Reporting past activities or events

 

 

 

 

 

Past vs. Past Progressive
PAST PAST PROGRESSIVE

Past Tense is used for a completed activity or event before the current moment.

Past Progressive emphasizes the duration or the repetition of a past activity or event.

Jack received a speeding ticket on June 16th. (exact time)

Jack was receiving a speeding ticket when a friend drove by.(relative time)

Jack didn't think responsibly. (more permanent – his character)

Jack wasn't thinking responsibly. (temporary - at the moment while speeding)

Jack attended traffic school online at night.  (indefinite time – emphasis is on the action)

Jack was attending traffic school online every evening for a week. (repeated activity)

Jack daydreamed a lot. (more permanent – his character)

Jack was daydreaming while he was driving.(relative time)

Jack was more careful after that. (permanent)

Jack was being more careful after that.  (repeated –applying his attention)

traffic school – a course that one has to take to reduce a traffic fine (penalty).

 

 

 

 

Past

Adverbs

 

 

Adverbs for Both Past & Past Progressive Tenses
PAST & PAST PROGRESSIVE ADVERBS

Past tense adverbs tell us when or how frequently a past activity occurred. Emphasis is on the action rather than the time. Past is used with all the adverbs in this table (except while...)

Past progressive adverbs tell us how frequently or how long a past activity occurred. Emphasis is on the time: duration or repetition. Past progressive is used with all the adverbs in this table (except when...)

AT, IN, ON

AGO, LAST, THAT/THOSE

THIS / THESE

ADVERBS & CONJUNCTIONS

ADVERBS OF FREQUENCY

FOR, FROM, OVER, DURING

A specific time in the past    

A past time based on quantity or calendar units

A past time before the current time   

A time relative to another event or action in the past 

A time that re-occured in the past   

A time with duration in the past   

yesterday (at noon yesterday, at midnight last night)

a minute ago (second, hour, day, week, month, year)

today / tonight (time passed; before now)

then (adv.)

always (routinely, customarily, normally, as a rule, in general)

for three weeks (quantity of time)

at 6:00 a.m. (hour)
at noon

six weeks ago    (seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years)

this morning (morning, evening, afternoon, week, month, year)

when I saw it 

usually (most of the time)

from Monday to Friday

on January 10. (day)
on Thursday. (day)

last night  (week, month, year)

these mornings(evenings, afternoons, weeks, months, years)

*while I was there
as I was studying 

often (frequently, half of the time)

during the 1960s

in January  (month)
in 2006  (year)

last Thursday  (June, winter, leap-year)

 

whenever I tried
anytime I tried

sometimes (occasionally, on occasion)

continuously
continually

in the 1960s

that morning (morning, evening, afternoon, week, month, year)

 

if I saw them
whether I saw them

rarely (seldom, hardly ever)

 

See Preps for Time 

those mornings(evenings, afternoons, weeks, months, years)

 

 

never (not ever)

*several times and since are not used with either tense including the progressive

*Using that / those distances the speaker from the time mentioned.
Related page: Adverbs of Time | would

 

 

Common Mistakes
ERRORS FIXES  

I worked there since a year ago.

I worked there a year ago. (indefinite time)
I was working there for a year. (defined period)
 

I was attending classes several times.
 

I attended classes several times.   (repeated activity)
I was attending classes often. (routine activity)

 

 

 

 

Sentence Forms

Word Order

 

 

SENTENCE TYPE AUXILIARY VERB SUBJECT AUXILIARY VERB MAIN VERB REST OF SENTENCE CLAUSE

STATEMENT 

 

 

 

Jack

 

 

 

drove

 

home carefully. 

 

 

Jack and his friend

 

drove

home carefully.

 

QUESTION

 

Did 

 

Jack

 

 

drive   

 

home carefully?

 

 

Did 

Jack and his friend

 

drive   

home carefully?

 

*TAG QUESTION

 

 

 

Jack

 

 

drove

 

home carefully,

 

didn't he?

Jack and his friend

 

drove

home carefully,

didn't they?

NEGATIVE 

 

 

Jack

 

didn't

 

drive

 

home carefully.

 

 

Jack and his friend

didn't

drive

home carefully.

 

†EMPHASIS

 

 

Jack

 

did

 

drive

 

home carefully.

 

 

Jack and his friend

did

drive

home carefully.
 

 

A tag question can also occur with a negative main sentence and a postive final question: Jack didn't drive home carefully, did he?   Related page: And so / too   
†Use emphasis word order when contradicting or stating that the opposite is true: "I think that Jack didn't drive home carefully."   "No, hedid drive there carefully." 

 

 

Past Tense

Spelling – Suffixes

 

 

 

 

Regular & Irregular Suffixes (endings)
Suffix –ED FINAL E FINAL -Y CONSONANT DOUBLING

winkedFor most verbs, add the suffix -ed

deleteFor verbs ending in e, add -d.

friedFor verbs ending in -y, remove the y and add -ied.

For words ending with a stressed [consonant + short vowel + consonant] pattern, double the final consonant, then add -ed.

wink

winked

delete

deleted

cry

cried

bag

bagged

ask

asked

bike

biked

fry

fried

wed

wedded

want

wanted

date

dated

dry

dried

pop

popped

need

needed

save

saved

try

tried

excel ɪkˈsɛl/

excelled ɪkˈsɛld/

 

 

What is a "short" vowel?  

These words contain "short" vowel sounds.  

 

short a — /næp/

short e — /wɛd/

short i — /zɪp/

short o — /tʃɒp/

short u — /hʌg/

napnapping

wedwedding

zip zip

chop chop

hug bumble bee

  
Double the final consonant before adding -ed

nap –   napped

wed – wedded

zip – zipped

chop – chopped

hug – hugged

bag –  bagged

step – stepped

clip – clipped

pop – popped

rub – rubbed

bat  –   batted

beg – begged

pit – pitted

jog –   jogged

hum – hummed

wrap – wrapped

wet – wetted

kid  – kidded (joke)

spot – spotted

sun – sunned

 

 

Irregular Past Tense Verb Forms
PRESENT PAST PRESENT PAST PRESENT PAST PRESENT PAST

awake

awoke

fall

fell

let

let

shut

shut

beat

beat

feel

felt

lie

lay

sit

sat

begin

began

find

found

lose

lost

slide

slid

bite

bit

forgive

forgave

loosen

loosened

spend

spent

blow

blew

get

got

meet

met

stand

stood

bring

brought

go

went

put

put

stick

stuck

buy

bought

hang

hanged / hung

read

read

swim

swam

choose

chose

hear

heard

ring

rang

teach

taught

cost

cost

hit

hit

run

ran

tell

told

dig

dug

hurt

hurt

see

saw

throw

threw

draw

drew

know

knew

send

sent

wake

woke

drive

drove

lay

laid

shake

shook

wear

wore

 

Related page: Past Verb Form-practice

 

 

 

 

 

GreecePractice

George's Study Abroad

 

 

 

 

Past Progressive versus Nonprogressive
  1. Select the word order that best completes the sentence. 
  2. Then, click the button on the right to check your answer.

 

# YOUR RESPONSE CHECK YOUR RESPONSE
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.  

6.

7.

8.