Past form of the verb stand. The Simple Past Tense in English (The Past Simple)

Hello friends! The Past Simple is used to denote an action that occurred at a specific time in the past and the time for which has already expired.

To clarify the moment of an action in the past when using the Past Simple tense, words such as five days ago (five days ago), last year (last year), yesterday (yesterday), in 1980 (in 1980), etc. P.

When we use Past Simple

We use the simple past tense when we say:

1. About events or actions that occurred in the past and the time for which has expired. That is, the action or event is complete. (he bought a car last year, they went on vacation last month, the meeting was last week)

2. About events or actions in the past that were repeated regularly, but are not happening now. (she danced at school, we went to the gym last year)

3. About events in the past that happened one after another. (they met, walked in the park, went to the cinema)

• My brother was born in 1987. - My brother was born in 1987.
• She moved to the capital 7 years ago. - She moved to the capital seven years ago.
• We saw him last month. - We saw him last month.
• The Second World War began in 1939. - The Second World War began in 1939.

How is the past simple formed?

Statement

In order to form the Past Simple, we add an ending to the verb -ed, if the verb is correct (work – worked, learn – learned, ask – asked). If the verb is irregular, then we look for the form for Past Simple in the second column of the table. Most likely, at first it will be difficult for you to immediately determine which verb is in front of you.

Past Continuous - long past tense in English

Time Past Continuous indicates a process that lasted at a certain moment or period in the past. Unlike the Past Simple tense, this moment in the past must be named directly (for example, yesterday at 5 o’clock, when you called, when rain started) or be obvious from the context.

• When you called I was taking a shower.
  I was taking a shower when you called.
• Charlie and me were already driving home when the engine suddenly stopped.
  Charlie and I were already driving home when the engine suddenly stopped.

Using the Past Continuous

1. An action that occurred at a certain moment in the past. Since this moment is still expressed in a long time, it is possible to indicate the period.

• From six to seven I was cooking dinner.

The same action can be expressed both through the Past Continuous and the Past Simple. It depends on whether you want to emphasize the duration of the action or not. Usually, when there is such a choice, choosing a long tense puts more emphasis on the action being performed.

What did you do last night? — I played cards(more like a fact) or I was playing cards(sharpening attention).

2. An action against the background of which another action occurred, which must be expressed in the Past Simple. The past simple is usually inserted into a sentence using the conjunctions when and and.

• He was walking home (background action) when someone called his name.
• She was reading a book and suddenly came across an interesting phrase.

3. Actions that occupy a certain period of time in the past.

• He told me that he was working at his diploma.

4. Negative evaluative characteristics of a person’s constant actions or behavior in emotionally charged speech. Such sentences usually use adverbs of frequency such as always, constantly, all the time.

• He was always lying on the sofa and doing nothing.
• His parents were quarrelling all the time.

5. To express two parallel actions occurring at a certain moment in the past. None of the parallel actions of the sentence is background to the others.

• The boy was reading, and the girl was playing the piano.

6. There are verbs in the present continuous tense ( look, feel, understand etc.), which usually do not have a long-lasting form. The same rule applies to these verbs in the past continuous tense.

To express strong emotions or to emphasize the importance of an action, these verbs can take a continuous form.

• He couldn’t believe in what he was seeing and hearing.

In all types of continuous tense it is possible to use several semantic verbs with one verb verb with one subject

• She was driving her car and talking on the phone.

How is the Past Continuous formed?

Statement

The predicate in the Past Continuous consists of an auxiliary verb and a main verb. In order to form the Past Continuous, we need the past tense forms to be – was, were. Was is used in the singular, were in the plural. From the main verb we remove the particle to and add the ending -ing.

Affirmative sentences:

Negative Suggestions:

Past Perfect and Past Perfect Continuous

Perfect and perfect continuous past tenses in English.

Time Past Perfect denotes an action that was completed before a certain point in the past. The Past Perfect is characterized by the use of adverbs already, yet, ever, never, as for Present Perfect. These adverbs show which action happened earlier, which means for which action the Past Perfect must be used.

• By the time Mary got to the office, her boss had already left.
• By the time Mary arrived at the office, her boss had already left.

Using the Past Perfect

1. The action happened before a certain time in the past

• By 1995, he had become a famous artist.
• By 1995 he had become a famous artist.(That is, he became a famous artist at a certain time in the past.)

2. The action occurred before another time (event) in the past

• I didn’t want to go to the cinema yesterday, because I had already seen the film.
• I didn’t want to go to the cinema yesterday because I had already seen this film.(That is, I had seen this film before, until yesterday.)

Statement

The predicate in the Past Perfect consists of two parts: the auxiliary verb had and the third form of the main verb (we add the ending -ed to the regular verb, and take the irregular form from the third column of the table of irregular verbs).

Past Perfect Continuous - past perfect continuous tense

Time Past Perfect Continuous indicates an action that began in the past, continued for some time, and either ended just before some point in the past or was still unfinished at some point in the past.

• When Jane came home, Martin was very tired, because he had been working hard all day.
• When Jane came home, Martin was very tired because he had worked hard all day.

Using the Past Perfect Continuous

1. The action took place before a certain time in the past

• When it was 3:00 p.m. I had been waiting for Bob for two hours.
• When it was 3 pm, I had been waiting for Bob for two hours.(That is, by the time it was 3 o'clock in the afternoon, this moment was in the past; I had already waited two hours.)

2. The action occurred before another action (event) in the past

• Yesterday we had been playing for two hours when Tom arrived.
• Yesterday, when Tom arrived, we had already been playing for two hours.

Formation Past Perfect Continuous

In order to put a verb in the Past Perfect Continuous tense, you need the auxiliary verb to be in the Past Perfect tense and the present participle (V-ing form) of the semantic verb.

To be in time Past Perfect has a single form had been.

Affirmative sentences:

Negative Suggestions:

When you leave a page without liking it, there is one cat in the world who is sad.

Simple past tense in English

Indicating the time of a certain action in the past.

Collectively, past tense forms in English are usually united by the concept of Past Tenses. This article will look at three main times, which differ in duration and quality. So, there are the indefinite past or Simple), continuous (Past Continuous) and perfect (Past Perfect) tenses.

Past formSimple

The Past Simple form is the most common and frequently used past tense in the English language. This is the primary tense for expressing any action that happened some time ago. Very often it competes with the present perfect tense (Present Perfect), which, despite belonging to the present verbs, is in the past tense. We must not forget that the perfect present tense is only suitable when a past action affects the present. If the events are not related to the present, you should use the Past Simple.

This time is formed very simply. If the verb is correct, you should simply add the ending -ed to it; if it is incorrect, the required form is in the standard table:

We played the piano three days ago; I forgot my hat at home.

To form a question, use the auxiliary verb did:

Did you play the piano yesterday?

For negation, this auxiliary verb is also used, but with the negation particle not:

She didn't watch TV.

Thus, the Past Simple should be used if the action happened in the past and has no relation to the present. Words that foreshadow the use of this tense form of the verb are yesterday (yesterday), 8 years ago (8 years ago), in 1989 (in 1989) and so on.

Past Continuous form

Past Continuous is a tense that denotes a long action in the past. In other words, it is used when talking about a specific moment, about an action in a process. For example, She was playing the guitar yesterday at 10 p.m. The example shows that the Past Continuous is formed using an additional verb to be in the past tense and a verb ending in -ing. If the sentence is interrogative, it should be moved to the beginning; if it is negative, not should be added to it:

Were you playing the piano yesterday at 10 p.m.? No, I wasn’t doing this at that time.

In addition, this past tense in English is used to denote an action that once occurred at a specific moment and was interrupted by another simultaneous action. For example, We were looking through the magazine when he called.

Past Perfect tenses andPast Perfect Continuous

These tenses are called the perfect and perfect continuous past tenses, respectively. To form them, you need to have a good knowledge of verb forms. The past tense in English is based entirely on this knowledge. So, for the Past Perfect you need an additional one in the form had and the second participle of the main verb. The latter can be found in the table of irregular verbs or formed by adding the familiar ending -ed.

It should be remembered that the simple perfect tense is used to express an action that has already completed before a specific moment. In turn, Past Perfect Continuous is used in situations where a certain action began before a certain moment in the past and lasted for some time. The Past Perfect Continuous is formed using the form had been, to which the main verb ending in -ing is added.

In general, the past tense in English is not as difficult as it might seem at first glance. It is very important to understand everything and practice various exercises that will best demonstrate the above rules in practice.

Not a single language on Earth can do without the past tense. English is no exception. The past tense in English is used to express an action that happened an hour ago, yesterday, last year, that is, in the past. Types of past tense in English and patterns of their formation

The English language differs from Russian in that it has several types of past tense - Past Simple, Past Continuous, Past Perfect, Past Perfect Continuous, whereas in Russian there is only one past tense. The English language is different in that each of these past tenses has its own nuances, and we will talk about each of them today.

The first type of past tense in English is the Past Simple or simple past. The simple past tense in English is formed by adding the ending -ed to the stem of the verb. And to form the negative and interrogative forms of verbs in the Past Simple, an auxiliary verb is used do, namely its past form did. Past Simple corresponds to the perfect form of the past tense in Russian.

• I/you/he/she/we/they work ed
• I/you/he/she/we/they didn’t work
• Did I/you/he/she/we/they work?

The English language reminds you that if you use irregular verbs in the Past Simple, then the second form of the table of irregular verbs is needed here:

• I/you/he/she/we/they spoke
• I/you/he/she/we/they didn’t speak
• Did I/you/he/she/we/they speak?

Please note that the ending -ed we use only the affirmative form of verbs; in the negative and interrogative form there are no endings, everything is taken over by the auxiliary verb.
We bring to your attention the adverbs that are used in the Past Simple:

• Yesterday - yesterday
• The day before yesterday - the day before yesterday
• That day - on that day
• Last night - last night

An adverb can appear at the beginning or end of a sentence. For example:

• Last night I slept very well. — I slept very well last night.
• We spoke with John last week. — He talked to John last week.

Speaking of verbs to be And to have, then you remember that these are irregular verbs and they are conjugated in the Past Simple in their own way:

I/he/she was
You/we/they were
I/you/he/she/we/they had

Pay attention to the examples of sentences in which we use the simple past tense:

• I was busy when you called me. — I was busy when you called me.
• She hadn't any appointment yesterday. — She didn’t have any meeting yesterday.

What is the continuous past tense?

The past tense in English can be continuous or continuous - this is the Past Continuous, and it corresponds to the imperfect form of the past tense in Russian. If we use verbs in the Past Continuous, this indicates that the action is not finished, it is still ongoing.

The scheme for constructing the Past Continuous tense (long past tense) is as follows: to be V Past Simple + verb + -ing ending.

I/he/she was working
We/you/they were working

Was I/he/she working?
Were we/you/they working?

I/he/she wasn’t working
We/you/they weren't working

Adverbs used in the Past Continuous must express the duration of the action:

• At that moment - at that moment
• That time - at that time
• All the day/night/week - all day/all night/week
• One day ago/two days ago - a day ago/two days ago, etc.

Examples of sentences in English using the Past Continuous:

• Yesterday I was playing computer games all the day. — Yesterday I played computer games all day.
• When you came to us, Sue was talking on the phone. — When you came to us, Sue was talking on the phone.
• We were working all the week without weekend. — We worked all week without a day off.

It is worth noting that Past Simple and Past Continuous are used in speech more often than other past tenses.
How to easily learn the past tense in English?

Why is Past Perfect needed?

Past Perfect is the past perfect tense in English, which has the meaning of a long past tense.

The Past Perfect formation scheme is simple: had + verb + ending -ed or the third form of an irregular verb.

• I/you/he/she/we/they had worked
• Had I/you/he/she/we/they worked?
• I/you/he/she/we/they hadn’t worked

The Past Perfect is needed to express an action that happened a long time ago. The past perfect tense is also often used to talk about a past action that happened before another past action. At first glance it turns out to be a mess, but now you’ll see with an example. This phenomenon is present especially in indirect speech.

Pay attention to the following examples where the past perfect tense of verbs is used:

• Ann said that she had met John on the street. - Anna said that she met John on the street (at first she met, and then she said - past action before the past).
• Bill announced that he had won the competition. — Bill announced that he had won the competition.
• Andy observed that he had forgotten his documents. — Andy noticed that he forgot his documents.

The Past Perfect is also used in the third case of the conditional mood, in subordinate clauses:

• If you had listened your parents, you wouldn’t have made such a lot of mistakes. “If you had listened to your parents, you wouldn’t have made so many mistakes.”

How to make friends with the Past Perfect Continuous?

The English past tense has another variation. This is Past Perfect Continuous.

Past Perfect Continuous - past perfect continuous tense. Past Perfect Continuous indicates an action that began in the past, continued for some time and ended before some specific moment in the past.

Most often, the Past Perfect Continuous (perfect continuous) is used in written texts; you rarely see it in oral speech, because it is easier to replace it with the Past Continuous.

To quickly and easily make friends with the Past Perfect Continuous, you need to remember its formation scheme: had + been + verb + -ing ending.

• I/you/he/she/we/they had been working
• I/you/he/she/we/they hadn’t been working
• Had I/you/he/she/we/they been working?

Example sentence with Past Perfect Continuous:

• He had been working hard and managed to finish the documents in time. “He worked hard and was able to complete the paperwork on time.

As you noticed, the Past Perfect Continuous is a little capricious, but if you remember the formation scheme, you will not have problems with it.

Verbs in the past tense in English have 4 forms. They are used in relation to actions that differ in dynamics and moment of commission.

Description of past tense forms

Native English speakers distinguish past actions by duration, completion, and other characteristics. To talk about what happened or has happened up to now they use:

• Past Simple (Simple Past Tense) – reports regular or one-time actions. The key words are: yesterday (yesterday), last week (last week), a year ago (a year ago). The rule for forming the Past Simple involves adding the ending -ed to the stem of the verb, that is, the second form: play-played (play), watch-watched (watch, observe), stop-stopped (stop). Negative and interrogative sentences require the auxiliary verb did. In this case, the semantic one is put back into its original form.

I didn't watch this match. – I didn’t watch this match.

Did you watch this match? – Did you watch this match?

In all tenses of the Past group, verbs are divided into regular and irregular. The latter form 2 forms, changing in various ways. They are considered exceptions that need to be remembered: see-saw (see), put-put (put), find-found (find).

• Past Continuous – describes a process that occurred at a certain time in the past. To form this form, the 2nd form of the verb to be – was/were and a semantic verb with the ending -ing are required.

I was doing exercises at 7 a.m. – I did exercises at 7 am.

A moment in the past can be indicated not only by exact time, but also by another single action.

She was listening to the radio when she saw a cat in the street. – She was listening to the radio when she saw a cat on the street. (was listeting – process, saw – one-time action)

• Past Perfect (Past Complete) – expresses an action that has ended at the time of speaking, when the result is important. This tense is formed from 2 components: the 2nd form of the verb to have – had and the past participle of the semantic verb.

I had passed my exams by the 1st of June. – I passed my exams by June 1st.

• Past Perfect Continuous (Simple Complete Long Tense) - a description of a continuous action that began before another event in the past and was still happening at the time of speaking. To form this form, 3 components are required: had + been + semantic verb ending -ing.

Jane had been knitting for an hour when I called her. Jane had been knitting for an hour when I called her.

Table of past tense verbs in English

To better understand the mechanism of formation of sentences with different purposes in the past tense, you can look at the diagram with examples.

If you've gotten to the point of learning verbs, you've already gone through a lot. But there is still a long road to perfection ahead. The temporary system is based on such a distinction between this part of speech as correct and incorrect. It is the latter that we will talk about and explain how to quickly learn irregular verbs.

So, we already know that with the passage of time, foreign conquests or other interactions of people, the English language also did not stand aside. This is especially true for verbs. If we study times, then we have to differentiate according to this category. Irregular Verbs are found in almost every one of them.

Forms of irregular verbs in English

Where to begin? From familiarization. What types are there, when and how are they used. After all, when reading the rule, you often come across the expression 2nd form, 3rd. We will now look at what it is. Once again, it is worth recalling that there are 3 forms of irregular verbs (some linguists distinguish four).

First form is an infinitive or first column of the table. This is how the verb is used in the dictionary: run, swim, give. It is used in Present Simple, Future Simple, in interrogative and negative sentences Past Simple.

Second form - This is the simple past tense: ran, swam, gave (second column). In this form, irregular English verbs are used in the Past Simple (with the exception of interrogative and negative sentences).

Third form- this is the past participle (Past Participle or Participle II): run, swun, given. This form of the verb is used most often. In Perfect times, in all times Passive Voice. You will find it in third column of the table.

Fourth form- this is the present participle (Present Participle or Participle I): running, swimming, giving. It is used by the group tenses Continuous and Perfect Continuous. Not all tables contain a fourth column, only some do.

When considering sentences with irregular verbs, pay attention to the tense.

How are the main irregular verbs of the English language formed?

It is impossible to clearly determine that these words are changed in this way, and others in the second or third way. But it is still possible to trace a certain trend, and then it will not be a collection of words and incomprehensible forms.

1. By changing the vowel in the root of the word: meet - met - met; begin - began - begun.
2. Changing the root and adding a suffix: speak - spoke - spoken; give - gave - given.
3. The ending changes: send - sent - sent; build - built - built.
4. And some verbs are the same in all forms: cut - cut - cut; put - put - put.

How to learn irregular verbs?

Each has its own methodology, its own method, which has its own pros and cons. But first I would like to say a few generally accepted facts. First, learn all three forms at once and with translation. Irregular verbs with translation can be found in almost any grammar textbook, dictionary, on Internet resources and on our website. The entire table can be downloaded. Don’t learn 10 at once, take 5, stretch them out over 3-4 days, do the exercises. Many learn in a row, in alphabetical order, some in groups (depending on the method of education). I believe that the second one is more effective and easier. Therefore, we will divide all irregular English verbs into groups.

1. Completely identical

2. The second and third shapes coincide - p-t

3. The second and third forms coincide - d-t

4. The root vowel changes - ew - own

5. A group of verbs with different root vowels

6. Endings aught/ought

7. Vowel alternation

8. Alternating vowel + ending en

9. Alternation, ending en, doubling a consonant

10. The second and third forms coincide

11.Have two options

12. Completely different shapes

Remembering irregular verbs in English at first seems difficult and tedious. But believe me, if you don’t reboot yourself, study using the groups that we have provided, you will easily master them. And this is very important! All irregular verbs are very often used in speech. Learn grammar and expand your vocabulary.