Mastering Past Tense: Types, Formula, Examples

Learning English tenses can be a bit tricky, especially for non-native speakers like myself. That’s because English has many verb forms, each with specific rules and nuances related to time, aspect, and mood. Additionally, irregular verbs and auxiliary verbs add another layer of complexity. 

In this article, we’ll focus on the past tense, its different types, and how to conjugate regular and irregular verbs in the past tense. 

What Is Past Tense? 

The past tense in English is a verb form that indicates an action or state that occurred in the past. It’s used to describe events, situations, or experiences that have already happened rather than those that are happening now or will happen in the future.

Uses of Past Tense

Knowing how to use the past tense helps you accurately describe and discuss past events, experiences, and timelines in your conversations and writing.

• Describing Past Actions: The past tense is for talking about things that happened in the past, like sharing personal experiences or discussing historical events.

• Expressing Completed Actions: It shows that something was finished in the past, not ongoing or in the future.

• Narrating a Story: When telling a story or recounting events, the past tense helps establish the timeline and sequence of what happened.

• Reporting Speech: Use the past tense to accurately convey what someone said or expressed in the past, even if the conversation happened earlier.

Past Tense Structure

You form the past tense by adding a suffix (-ed) to the base form of a regular verb. For example, the past tense of “walk” is “walked.” 

However, English also has many irregular verbs, where the past tense form does not follow this standard pattern. You’ll have to learn irregular verbs individually and remember their form. Check out our section on irregular verbs to download your printable PDF table.

What Are the Four Types of Past Tense? 

English has four past tenses that convey specific meanings and time relationships. Let’s examine each type to understand it better.

Simple Past Tense

The simple past tense is one of English’s most fundamental and commonly used past tense forms. It describes actions, events, or states that were completed in the past at a specific time.

Simple Past Tense Formula:

Type of Verb	Formula for Simple Past Tense
Positive Regular Verb	Subject + past tense verb
Negative	Subject + did not (didn’t) + base form of verb
Question	Did + subject + base form of verb?

Here are examples for each type:

Positive: She played basketball yesterday.

Negative: They didn’t finish their homework on time.

Question: Did you eat breakfast this morning?

The simple past tense is used in the following situations:

• To talk about completed actions or events in the past, often with time expressions like “yesterday,” “last week,” or “in 2020.”

• To describe past habits, routines, or repeated actions that are no longer occurring: “I went to the gym every morning when I lived in that city.”

• To narrate a sequence of past events, such as when telling a story or recounting a personal experience: “When I was a child, I visited my grandparents every summer, played in the fields all day, and listened to their stories by the fireplace every evening.”

• In hypothetical or unreal situations, referring to the past: “If I had more time, I would have finished the project.“

Past Continuous Tense (Past Progressive)

The past continuous tense, also known as the past progressive tense, describes an ongoing action or state in the past. It indicates that something was happening or progressing at a specific time.

Past Continuous Tense Formula:

Type of Verb	Formula for Past Continuous Tense
Positive	Subject + was/were + verb + -ing
Negative	Subject + was/were + not + verb + -ing
Question	Was/Were + subject + verb + -ing?

Check out these sample sentences:

Positive: He was playing football.

Negative: They were not studying yesterday.

Question: Was she sleeping when you called?

The past continuous tense is commonly used in the following situations:

• To describe an action that was in progress at a specific time in the past: “I was reading a book when the phone rang.”
• To indicate two actions happening simultaneously in the past: “While I was cooking dinner, my roommate was setting the table.”
• To describe repeated or habitual actions in the past, often with words like “always” or “constantly”: “My boss was always calling me into meetings during my lunch break.”
• To talk about unfulfilled plans or intentions in the past: “I was hoping to visit the museum, but it was closed for renovations.”

Past Perfect Tense

The past perfect tense talks about two events that took place in the past, with one event occurring before the other. 

One challenge I faced when learning the past perfect tense was figuring out the sequence of events. Since this tense involves two past events, it can be hard to determine which event occurred first and how they are connected. 

Also, I don’t often hear native speakers use the past perfect tense in everyday conversation, which made it harder for me (and I think many ESL students) to grasp when and how to use it correctly.

Past Perfect Tense Formula:

Type of Verb	Formula for Past Perfect Tense
Positive	Subject + had + past participle of verb
Negative	Subject + had not (hadn’t) + past participle of verb
Question	Had + subject + past participle of verb?

Here’s an example for each:

Positive: When we got home last night, someone had broken into the house. 

Negative: They hadn’t seen that movie before yesterday.

Question: Had she visited the museum before last summer?

The key uses of the past perfect tense include:

• To describe an action that was completed before another past event: “I had finished my homework before my friends arrived.”

• To show the order of two past events, with the past perfect indicating the earlier action: “The teacher had already graded the tests when the students received them.”

• To discuss events that occurred before a specific time in the past: “By 5 pm, I had already cooked dinner and cleaned the kitchen.”

• In reported speech, to indicate that an action occurred before the moment of reporting: “She said she had lost her keys earlier that day.”

• With adverbs like “already,” “just,” and “never” to provide additional context about the timing of the past action: “The patient had already been discharged by the time I arrived at the hospital.”

Past Perfect Continuous Tense (Past Perfect Progressive)

The past perfect continuous tense, also known as the past perfect progressive tense, describes an action that was ongoing or continuous in the past before another past event occurred. It indicates that an action started in the past, continued for some time, and was still in progress when something else happened.

I also struggled to understand this tense because of its complex structure and the limited opportunities to practice it.

Past Perfect Continuous Tense Formula:

Type of Verb	Formula for Past Perfect Tense
Positive	Subject + had been + verb + -ing
Negative	Subject + had not been (hadn’t been) + verb + -ing
Question	Had + subject + been + verb + -ing?

Here are example sentences for each verb type: 

Positive: She had been studying English for two years before she moved to the United States.

Negative: They hadn’t been practicing the piano for very long before the concert.

Question: Had he been waiting for a long time when you arrived?

The past perfect continuous tense is commonly used in these situations: 

• To describe an action that was in progress up until another past event: “She had been practicing the piano piece for weeks before the recital.”
• To provide context about the duration of a past action in relation to another past event: “By the time I arrived, the workers had been repainting the house all day.”
• To emphasize the continuous or repeated nature of a past action: “The dog had been barking for hours before the neighbors finally complained.”
• With time expressions like “for,” “since,” “until,” and “by the time” to give more details about the timeframe: “They had been living in that apartment for five years before they decided to move.”

Past Tense Irregular Verbs 

One study found that children, especially those with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), had more difficulty forming the past tense for irregular English verbs than regular and novel verbs.

Here’s a table of the most common irregular verbs conjugated in past tenses. You can also download our printable table. 

Verb	Simple Past	Past Continuous	Past Perfect	Past Perfect Continuous
be	was/were	was/were being	had been	had been being
have	had	was/were having	had had	had been having
go	went	was/were going	had gone	had been going
do	did	was/were doing	had done	had been doing
see	saw	was/were seeing	had seen	had been seeing
say	said	was/were saying	had said	had been saying
come	came	was/were coming	had come	had been coming
take	took	was/were taking	had taken	had been taking
get	got	was/were getting	had gotten/got	had been getting
make	made	was/were making	had made	had been making
know	knew	was/were knowing	had known	had been knowing
think	thought	was/were thinking	had thought	had been thinking
find	found	was/were finding	had found	had been finding
give	gave	was/were giving	had given	had been giving
tell	told	was/were telling	had told	had been telling
eat	ate	was/were eating	had eaten	had been eating
sleep	slept	was/were sleeping	had slept	had been sleeping
bring	brought	was/were bringing	had brought	had been bringing
buy	bought	was/were buying	had bought	had been buying
stand	stood	was/were standing	had stood	had been standing