Lesson No 31A-All Past Tenses (regular and irregular verbs)

Past Tenses in English

There are three main past tenses in English:

1. Simple Past Tense

• Used to describe completed actions in the past.
• Formation: Base form of the verb + -ed (for regular verbs)
  • Example: I walked to school yesterday.
• Irregular Verbs: Have different past tense forms.
  • Example: She ate an apple.

2. Past Continuous Tense

• Used to describe actions that were ongoing at a specific time in the past.
• Formation: was/were + verb + -ing
  • Example: I was watching TV at 7 PM.

3. Past Perfect Tense

• Used to describe actions that were completed before another action in the past.
• Formation: had + past participle
  • Example: I had eaten dinner before I watched TV.

Past Tense Practice

Simple Past Tense:

• I walked to school yesterday.
• She ate an apple.
• We visited the museum last week.

Past Continuous Tense:

• I was watching TV at 7 PM.
• She was sleeping when I called.
• We were eating dinner when the power went out.

Past Perfect Tense:

• I had eaten dinner before I watched TV.
• She had finished her homework before she went out.
• We had visited the museum before we went to the park.

Past Tenses with Regular and Irregular Verbs

Regular Verbs

• Formation: Add -ed to the base form.
• Examples:
  • walk -> walked
  • play -> played
  • work -> worked

Irregular Verbs

• No consistent rule.
• Examples:
  • go -> went
  • see -> saw
  • eat -> ate