Level: intermediate
Past tense
There are two tenses in English – past and present.
The past tense in English is used:
- to talk about the past
- to talk about hypotheses (when we imagine something)
- for politeness.
There are four past tense forms in English:
| Past simple: | I worked |
| Past continuous: | I was working |
| Past perfect: | I had worked |
| Past perfect continuous: | I had been working |
We use these forms:
- to talk about the past:
He worked at McDonald's. He had worked there since July.
He was working at McDonald's. He had been working there since July.
- to refer to the present or future in hypotheses:
It might be dangerous. Suppose they got lost.
This use is very common in wishes:
I wish it wasn't so cold.
and in conditions with if:
He could get a new job if he really tried.
If Jack was playing, they would probably win.
For hypotheses, wishes and conditions in the past, we use the past perfect:
It was very dangerous. What if you had got lost?
I wish I hadn't spent so much money last month.
I would have helped him if he had asked.
and also to talk about the present in a few polite expressions:
Excuse me, I was wondering if this was the train for York.
I just hoped you would be able to help me.
- Past tense 1
- Past tense 2
Hi bimsara,
"I'm wondering if you will..." could be used to say what we guess someone else will do in the future or ask about it, e.g. "I'm wondering if you will go to the cinema". Depending on the context, this can mean that I think you might go to the cinema at the time we're talking about it, or I'm indirectly asking you if you will go to the cinema.
"I was wondering if you would..." could be used to express what I was thinking in the past about an action that you would do later, e.g. "I was wondering if you would go to the cinema" (and now I see that you did), or as Peter mentions in his response, could be used to make a polite request in the present, e.g. "I was wondering if you would mind lending me 20 pounds".
Best wishes,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Thanks Peter M.
l think l already got it...
Hi!
Here is sentence l can't understand,help me to translate;
"The experiments have been being caried out since 1997."in what tense this sentence?
best wishes!
Hello MIRAZH,
This is an example of a present perfect continuous passive form, expressing an unfinished past activity (the experiments started in the past, are repeated events and are still continuing) without reference to the subject.
It is a quite correct sentence but is a very long and very unusual form - because it is so long and complex it is usually avoided as stylistically it feels quite clumsy, and so active forms are usually preferred:
'We/Scientists/They (etc.) have been carrying out the experiments since 1997.'
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi Pierre Francis,
That looks absolutely fine to me. It's perfectly acceptable to use a range of past forms in a narrative - in fact, it's really quite essential. If the narrative were written using, for example, only past simple forms then it would sound very unnatural and the style would be poor. In narratives we use many verb forms, but the most common are actually called, collectively, the 'narrative tenses': past simple, past continuous, past perfect simple and past perfect continuous.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi, wondering whether you can tell me which is the difference among the following three sentences:
1. I wish I have not spent so much money last month
2. I wish I had not spent so much money last month
3. I wish I would not have spent so much money last month
Are those sentences grammatically correct? If they are, what tense are they expressing?
Some advises for correcting bad habits when speaking and writing will be appreciated as well...
Thanks a lot !
'I have' is a present tense.
'I had' is a past tense.
'I would' is a future tense.
Since you are referring to last month, which is something that has already happened, 'I had' would be the correct one to use, since you are talking about the past.
'I have' would be incorrect because your sentence will refer to the present tense and the past tense at the same time. You should not mix tenses in the same sentence if you are referring to the same thing!
The same argument goes for 'I would'.
Hello koga369,
As I said on another page, it's nice that you want to help other users. However, your answers are not completely accurate and I think you may end up confusing people more than helping them! For example, 'I would' is not a future tense (in fact, English has no 'future tense' as such, but rather a range of ways of talking about the future). The verb 'would' is a modal verb which can have future meaning, but quite a specific future meaning and only in certain contexts.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi MayelaM,
After 'wish' you have two alternatives:
'I wish I hadn't spent so much money last money.' [a regret about the past]
'I wish I didn't spend so much money.' [a regret about the present]
There is another possibility if you are talking about somebody's behaviour or decisions. In that situation it is possible to use 'would':
'I wish he wouldn't complain so much!'
From this, you can see that the second sentence is fine, but the other two (1 and 3) are incorrect.
On your other question, I think I'd really need to know what the specific bad habits are before giving you any advice on those! Is there anything in particular that you have trouble with?
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Can you please explain me the difference between the following two sentences. "He always shaved before going out in the evening." and "He always shaves before going out in the evening."
Hello Gamaya,
The difference is that in the first sentence, it's no longer true because he doesn't shave (or go out) any more and in the second sentence, it's still true now.
Does that help?
Best wishes,
Adam
The LearnEnglish Team
Thank You Adam.
Hello :) i'm nabila aged 13y.o from Indonesia
i'm still confused to learn about past tense, and what is the difference between in,on, and at. i've been improve my English skills into my friends at school but it doesn't make any sense. my friends are still use Indonesian in my English courses. Sorry for my bad English, but this page helped me alot:) Thank you so much
Hello Nabila,
Your English is not bad at all! The words you mention (in, on and at) are all examples of prepositions and you can find quite a few pages on this topic here. If you type 'prepositions' into the search window on the right then you'll have quite a lot to choose from:
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/search/apachesolr_search/prepositions
By the way, as you're a teenager perhaps you'll find our sister-site LearnEnglish Teens interesting. It's got a lot of cool content which I'm sure you'll enjoy.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
My teacher. I have a question...
What is different between these two sentences(meanings)???
1.The car was invented by Carl Benz.
2.The car had invented by Carl Benz.
Please Solve My Problem. Thanks....
Hi alireza98fatahi,
I don't understand the second sentence that you wrote, but the first one is very clear.
It looks like you are studying the passive voice. Have you seen the explanation of the passive and the explanation of the difference between the active and passive voices? Both of these pages also have exercises so you can practice the passive.
If you have any more questions after working through these pages, please let us know.
Thanks for visiting LearnEnglish!
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
The first is saying Carl Benz invented the car sometime in the past; which makes sense.
The second sentence doesn't make sense....
It would make much more sense it you had put: The car had BEEN invented by Carl Benz. If you don't, the first part of the sentence 'The car had invented..' makes it sound like the car itself was inventing something!! The 'had been' bit sets the sentence up so that you can say it was invented by someone.
'Had been' is basically the same as was. I'd say it is almost interchangeable.
Examples:
I was at the supermarket.
I had been at the supermarket.
You can basically convey the same thing using both sentences.
Alternatively, you could have said 'Carl Benz had invented the car', which makes sense as well.
Hello koga369,
It's great that you want to help some of the other LearnEnglish users with their questions, but I can't agree with everything you've said here, such as 'had been' (a past perfect form) and 'was' (a past simple form) being almost interchangeable!
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
hi
how am i improve my speaking level? in my family no one could speak English so how do i practice and correct my wrongs?? please give me some ideas :(
Hi sindujak and welcome to LearnEnglish!
This is one of the questions which we are most often asked. It can be hard to improve your speaking without someone to practise speaking with, so think about the people you know, friends as well as family. Do any of them speak English? Are any of them learning English? If so, perhaps your could practise with them? It's a great way to develop fluency in speaking, and to start speaking and responding more confidently.
If you can't find a practise partner, there are other ways. For example, one very good way to improve is to listen to good examples of natural speech. I don't know what your English is like or what you need to practise or learn, so I can't recommend particular texts. However, here on LearnEnglish you can find a lot of things to listen to. Try some of the different podcasts and programmes there - I'm sure you'll find some really useful things there to help you develop your English generally, and your speaking specifically. Many of them can be downloaded and listened to offline, and you can also use the transcripts to listen and read, or listen and speak, at the same time.
Good luck with your learning and best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi PeterM
thank you So much for helping me...i will practice and try to do my best... :) i did some courses in Sri Lanka British council my level is intermediate 3 so could you recommend any materials for intermediate level student??
Hi again sindujak,
You're welcome, of course!
Your level would correspond with B1 or B2 in the CEFR system. To find materials for your level, try using the search window on the left. Type 'CEFR B1' or 'CEFR B2' and you'll see links to materials at those levels. Try them out and see how helpful they are.
I think I would personally recommend two things for you. The first is our soap opera, Big City Small World, which is fun and a great way to pick up natural English phrases and pronunciation. Every episode has exercises and tasks, too, so it's a great way to learn.
The second thing I'd recommend is our Word on the Street series. This might be a bit more challenging for you, but there is a transcript with each episode to help you, and I think you'll find the topics of this series really interesting.
Best of luck!
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello LearnEnglish Team
I have some problem with past tense verb, when I make Sentence in my mind it is correct but when I want speak about past ,I have a lot of problem.
I think you should build a"monitor" to control your utterances. The more you use the monitor, the better quality you will gain. Try to speak slowly. I believe it's everybody's problem.
Hello Shahla Aminaei,
I know just what you mean, because I have similar problems when I speak in foreign languages! It's the difference between competence (what we know in our heads) and production (what comes out of our mouths), and it's very frustrating. I'm afraid it's a case of keeping going and keeping using English... and slowly you'll make fewer and fewer mistakes. It's a normal part of the learning process. Just don't give up!
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello
What is the difference between two sentences below:
It started to rain.
It started raining.
Is it true if I say the second sentence means: "It was raining in the past" and the first sentence means "It has started some minutes ago and it is raining now"
Thank you in advanced.
Well. according to the book entitled "How English Works" pp.220, they are not really different. Both versions are acceptable.
Dear Teachers : My question is...
is the past perfect and past participle are the same?
thank you
Dear Omer,
A simple answer - no, they're not! The past perfect is a verb form like the present simple. The past particple is one of the forms of a verb in English.
Best wishes,
Adam
The LearnEnglish Team
that was really interesting..I liked it
Hi I'm new here and I would like to speak with people who speak the English language via Skype, to improve my language and I hope to help me because my exam after a one month
*****************************
Hello h_z, and welcome to LearnEnglish!
We really like it when students want to practice their English together. That's why we have comment sections on almost all of our pages – so you can talk to other students!
However, please remember our house rules ask you not to share personal information, including Skype and e-mail. This is to protect you and everyone else who uses our site. Why not tell us a little bit about yourself and your exam here in the comments, and see if anyone has advice or help for you?
Have fun, and enjoy your stay on LearnEnglish!
Regards
Jeremy Bee
The LearnEnglish Team
Thank you very much Mr. AdamJk for your whole-heartedly respond I am glad to heard from your great opinion about the IELTS I will check it now. Because in a fast few days I am focused on my past perfect continues in grammar. Thank you English team.
If you are very clever and have enough knowledge share your ideas in a logical manner. Instead of sharing your bad opinion. Moreover we are here to learn not to criticize the people. Disseminate your thoughts in a better communication and broaden our minds in a good relations to each other unlike your given the bad impression
hello my name is hassan i am new here i want learn english
Could anybody please help me and share your idea how to pass my IELTS exam because my proximity test date are coming this November. Thanks In advance for those people who are willing to help me.
Hello,
I assume you've looked through our IELTS preparation section and clicked through to the TakeIELTS website?
It's good to have a clear plan when preparing for IELTS. Have you done any practice tests? Do you know what your strong and weak points are? Do you know what IELTS score you want to get?
Best wishes,
Adam
The LearnEnglish Team
"was there anyone from this college recruited by them ?"
Is the above sentence correct ? If not how to use it...?What is the correct form of it ?
I see no problems, so it's just ok.
Could you help me with these sentences?
1. Nick (lie) ___down on the grass for a while, next to some tourists who were feeding the ducks.
My answer is: was lying
The textbook's answer is: lay
2. Sorry, I (not listen) ___ to you. I was thinking about something else.
My answer is: didn't listen
The textbook's answer is: wasn't listening
3. We didn't go out yesterday because it (rain)____
My answer is: rained
The textbook's is: was raining
I don't know why I was wrong with these sentences. Please help me to understand them more. Thanks much.
According to my opinion:
1. The verb "lie down" has implied movement or progressive action, it's an activity that you change your position from standing (for example) to lying on the ground. That's why it doesn't necessarily need to be expressed in progressive or continuous form.
2. the answer was "wasn't listening to you". It's from Betty Azar right?. The speaker in this case may try to stress the process of the action , therefore, not the result or the end of the action. Just imagine, the speaker had at least two choices in that case.
a. She was listening to her interlocutor
b. she was thinking about something else.
however, she preferred the second and the first remained undone.
therefore, if she wants to express it, she should express it in the similar form as found in the second i.e. in progressive.
3. you imagine that something was in progress whereas another activity happened in between its time duration.
so, the rain was in progress when the speakers (we) decided not to go out that day.
That's all I can render. Thank you, have a great time with Azar. :D
Hi,
I`m new in this site , I registered only to improve my grammar but it seems too complicated , i`m kind of confused now because the list of contents is too long and in a random order i assume ! (or it is not?) , I was wondering if you could help me sort it out that from which part i should start it? verbs? nouns? tenses? adjectives?adverbs?!
Thanks for your help
Anita
when to use "had been" or "have been" or "has been"
Hello rasm!
That's a big question! Have/has been are present perfect. You can read about them on our present perfect page. The past perfect is usually only used when we tell stories; it is not as important as present perfect.
Hope that helps!
Jeremy Bee
The LearnEnglish Team