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1. VERB AND TENSE

The Verb is a class of words that describes activities events actions and
states. Actions which verbs describe can be physical (eat), mental (think),
perceptual (see) etc. There are two classes of verbs in English:
a) AUXILIARY VERBS: to be, to have, to do; can, could, may, might, must,
ought, shall, should, will, would; to need, to dare and used.
b) All other verbs which we may call ORDINARY VERBS e.g. to work, to sing,
to pray etc.
In English as in the most of the languages verbs are inflected (inflection the
way in which a word changes its form to show a difference in its meaning or
use) to change tense, aspect, mood and voice, whch are four major
characteristics or variations in the structure of verb phrases.
Verb phrases can also be finite and non finite. Finite verb phrase has either
present/past tense or a modal verb. Non finite verb phrase has no tense and
does not include a modal verb e.g.
I want to be careful
In the finite verb structure tense has two variations: present and past. Verb
phrases that are marked for tense are called tensed verb phrases.
Other main verb phrases may include a modal verb. However, these two
options cannot occur together: a finite verb phrase either has a modal or is
marked for tense , but not both.
To sum up, tense is only a characteristic of the finite verb phrases.
Tense can be used to mark past and present and refer to future time. Aspect
is another characteristic of verbs which adds time meanings to those
expressed by tense. Aspect answers the question 'Is the event / state
described by the verb completed, or is it continuing?' There are two aspects

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in English: perfect and progressive (continuous). Verbs that do not have
aspect marked on them are said to have simple aspect.
The perfect aspect most often describes events or states taking place during
a preceding period of time. The progressive aspect describes an event or
state of affairs in progress or continuing. Perfect and progressive aspect can
be combined with either present or past tense

2. PAST TENSES
The past tense is a grammatical tense whose principal function is to place
an action or situation in past time. In languages which have a past tense, it
thus provides a grammatical means of indicating that the event being
referred to took place in the past. Examples of verbs in the past tense
include the English verbs sang, went and was.
In English, the past tense (or preterite) is one of the inflected forms of a verb.
The past tense of regular verbs is made by adding -d or -ed to the base form
of the verb, while those of irregular verbs are formed in various different
ways (such as seesaw, gowent,bewas/were). With regular and some
irregular verbs, the past tense form also serves as a past participle.
Various

multi-word

constructions

exist

for

combining

past

tense

with progressive (continuous) aspect, which denotes ongoing action; with

perfect aspect; and with progressive and perfect aspects together.
2.1. PAST SIMPLE TENSE
Most verbs add ed to the base form to make the past simple. The past
simple tense form is the same for all persons

(except with the verb be):

watch I /he/she/it/we/you/they watched; be I/he/she/it was; we/you/they

were.
SPELLING RULES

Base forms ending in a single stressed vowel and a consonant (except

w, x or y) double the consonant, e.g. hug hugged.

Base forms ending in a consonant and y, change y to i , e.g. copy

copied.
Irregular verbs do not form the past tense with ed, e.g. go went

QUESTIONS AND NEGATIVES

The past simple tense is a such form which does not have auxiliary verb in its
structure.This is is the reason why negative or interrogative operator DO
must be introduced in the form of the past simple tense DID / DID NOT
(DIDN'T)
We do not use the past form of the verb in questions and negatives; we use
did (not) + infinitive
Did you saw anything special?

No I didn't saw anything.

Did you see anything special?

No, I didn't see anything.

PAST ACTIONS AND STATES

We use the past simple to describe single completed actions in the past:
Julius Caesar invaded Britain in 55 BC.
Holland was occupied by the Germans in 1940
If the context is clear, it is not necessary to give a past time reference:
Caesar's troops failed to defeat the indigenous tribes (in 55 bc)
We use the past simple for actions which happened at the same time and
also for repeated actions:
When we got to the junction I took the left turn while Micky took the right
(two actions at the same time)
My brother applied for a visa 6 times before he got one (repeated actions)

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We use the past simple for sequences of actions. Sometimes the actions
follow immediately after each other, or one action causes a result:
Silverman ran to the car, jumped and raced off into the night (SEQUENCE)
Wall Street traders lost a fortune when the Asian markets collapsed (=
traders lost forutne because the markets collapsed)
We use the past simple to describe states in the past:
We lived just outside Oxford in the 90s, but we didn't have a car.
2.2. PAST CONTINUOUS
We form the past continuous with was or were and the present participle of
the main verb:
What were the children doing while all this was going on
AFFIRMATIVE: I was working
NEGATIVE: I was not working (negative contractions:wasn't)
QUESTIONS: was I working?
There are a number of verbs in English which we rarerly use in a continuous
tense. They often describe states of being, thinking, possessing or feeling:
Most people aren't believing in the existance of UFOs

Most people

don't believe in the existance of UFOs

USE
The past continuous tense is chiefly used for past actions which continued
for some time but whose exact limits are not known and are not important.
The past continuous describes an action in progress at a point of time in the
past, i.e. the action began before this point of time and continued after it:

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We didn't hear the intruder because we were sleeping on the top floor that
night
We often use the past continuous to show that a past action was temporary,
or was changing or developing:
During my training I was earning a lot less than my wife ( a temporary
situation)
His symptoms were becoming more pronounced each day ( a changing
situation)
Past continuous can be used to describe an action whch forms a background
or setting to past events:
Darkness was descending over the hushed city as James staggered back
to college.
We can use the past continuous for two actions in progress at the same time
in the past:
We were watching the sky and listening for the first sounds of the dawn
chorus.
We use the past continuous to contrast an ongoing action with a single event
which interrupts it. We use the past simple for the single event:
Elizabeth was hunting when messenger arrived with the news of Mary's plot.
We can use the past continuous tense to describe past arrangements; the
arranged event may or may not have taken place
Nancy was taking the next flight to Paris so she had to cut short the
interview.
We can make requests, suggestions and questions more tentative and polite
by using the past continuous. We often use the verbs think and wonder:
I was talking to Tom the other day

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The past continuous here gives the impression that the action was in no way
unusual or remarkable. It also tends to remove responsibility from the
subject. In the example it is not clear who started the conversation, and it
does not matter. In a contrast with the same sentence expressed in the
simple past:
I talked to Tom the other day
In the example it is clear who took the initiative
2.3. PAST PERFECT
We form the past perfect with had and a past participle, which is the same
for all persons.
By the end of the fourth day we had exhausted most of our rations
AFFIRMATIVE: I had / I'd worked.
NEGATIVE: I had not /I hadn't worked.
QUESTIONS: had I worked?
Regular verbs have a past participle form which is the same as the past
tense form
USE
We use the past perfect to describe an action which is copmpleted before a
time in the past. We can include a specific time reference:

By the time the UN task force arrived, the rebel forces had taken the
province
It can also be used for repeated actions:

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The new owners found that the timbers had been patched up several
times
We can use the past perfect to make a sequence of events clear. We use the
past perfect for the earlier action and the past simple for the later:
When we got back the babysitter went home (sequence: 1 we got back 2
the babysitter went home)
When we got back the baby sitter had gone home (sequence: 1 the
babysitter went home, 2 we got back)
We can use just or already with the past perfect to show that the earlier
action was recent or earlier than expected:
We wanted to talk to the babysitter but she'd just left
When we got back we found that babysitter had already gone home
We use the past perfect with verbs such as hope, expect, want, plan, think
about, wish to describe past intetions which were unfulfilled:
They had hoped to get to the summit but Travers fell ill at the base camp.
2.4. PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS
The past perfect continuous tense is formed with had been and the present
participle
The lake was near bursting point as it had been raining heavily for weeks.
AFFIRMATIVE: I had / I'd been working.
NEGATIVE: they had not been working
QUESTIONS: had you not been working?
USE
The past perfect contnuous is used to describe an ongoing situation or action
which continued up to, or stopped, just before a time in the past:

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He had been working for over an hour before the auditors turned up.

This tense is often used to explain a past result i.e. a situation or an

appearance:
The few survivors looked painfully thin. They had been living on meagre
rations since the accident.
The past perfect continuous bears the same relation to the past perfect as
the present perfect continuous bears to the present perfect
We often use this tense when we want to focus on duration:
Kubrick had been trying to get the film made for more than twenty years.
We do not mention the number of times that we have done an action when
we use the past perfect continuous
Jill had only been watching TV twice that week

Jill had only

watched T twice that week

We do not usually use tha past perfect continuous for completed actions, or
actions and background situations still continuing at the same as the past
simple.
She found her desk was empty; security had been removing eerything
She found her desk was empty; security had removed everything
2.5. USED TO / WOULD
Used to is followed by an infinitive:
It used to take me over an hour to get to work.
NEGATIVES: Supermarkets didn't use to be open on Sundays in Britain
QUESTION: Did you use to get free milk at school?

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Used to + infinitive is not the same as be/get used (+ verb ing) which
means 'be / become accostumed to':
I used to live alone (=i lived alone at a time in the past)
He wasn't used to living on his own (=he wasn't accostumed to it)
USE
Would and used to describe actions which happened regularly in the past but
no longer happen (or vice verse) or now happen with more or less frequency:
They used to get paid every three months (now they get paid weekly)
We would get up early every Sunday to go to the church (we do not now)
To avoid confusion with other uses of would, we usually mention the past
time or situations:
He would give her a lift to work in the days before she passed her test.
To describe past states which have changed we use used to:
Lithuania used to be part of the Soviet Union
There didn't use to be any crime around here in the old days
Would cannot be used for past states:
France would be a monarchy but now it's a republic

3. CONCLUSION
English verbs describe states and actions. This refers only to the ordinary
verbs which can stand on their own unlike the verbs which have the auxiliary
role in a sentence. Verbs in English have only two tense marked on them:
present and past. Verb phrases can either be marked for tense or have a
modal verb, but not both. There are two aspects in English: perfect and
progressive (continuous). Each of the aspects can be combined with present
and past tenses. Perfect aspect points back to an earlier time and usually

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signals that the circumstances, or its result, continued up to a given time.
Progressive or continuous aspect signals an event which has duration.
We often use the past simple tense for single completed events and past
states and we use the past continuous for temporary or interrupted actions.
Past perfect tense is used for actions which happened before a time in the
past. For an ongoing situation up to or just before a time in the past the past
perfect continuous is used and to describe habits in the past would / used to
can be applied.