Uses of Past Tenses

USES OF PAST SIMPLE TENSE

1. To completed actions in the past

Last Sunday, I watched a movie.

2. A series of completed actions in the past

I finished work, reached home, had my lunch and fell asleep.

3. Habits in the past

When I was young, I watched lots of television every day after school.

4. Telling Stories

Once there was a thirsty crow. It flew here and there in search of water.

5. Conditional Sentences (Type 2)

If I were you, I would never forgive him.

6. For stative verbs to express a continuous action in the past

(E.g. have (own), be, think (believe), know, dislike, need, owe, understand, wish)

He had a small cottage in the woods.

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USES OF PRESENT CONTINUOUS TENSE

1. Parallel Actions

While I was washing dishes, he was watching the movie.

2. Interrupted actions in the Past
While I was washing the dishes, the bell rang.
I was driving to work when I crashed my car.

3. Something Happening at a particular point in time in the past

I was working in the garden all day yesterday.
Last Saturday, this time we were travelling to Jeddah.

4. Habits in the past
He was always complaining in class.


5. For stative verbs that do not use the progressive aspect, the simple past is used instead.
At three o’clock yesterday we were in the garden.=======================================================================


USES OF PAST PERFECT TENSE

1. An action that finished before another action

The patient had died before the doctor arrived.

2. Cause and Effect

I got stuck in the traffic because there had been an accident.
He had travelled a lot because he was a pilot.

3. Conditional Sentences (Type 3)

If he had told me, I would have informed you.

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USES OF PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE


1. Long actions that had started in the past and continued until another action in the past

The boys had been playing Soccer for an hour when it started to rain.

2. To describe the cause of something happened in the past

I had been studying all day and I was absolutely exhausted.
You had lost a lot of weight because he had been going to the gym.
Her eyes were red because she had been crying all evening.