Page 82 - New Medley 5 Semester 1

The Past Tense

Let’s discuss the past tense in detail.

The Simple Is used to express an action that 1. One day, Rip Van Winkle went
Past Tense took place in the past and was to the mountains.

completed. 2. The little man looked strange.

3. Many dwarfs were in the open

clearing.
The Past Is used to refer to an action that 1. The dwarfs were playing
Continuous was going on at some point of time ninepins when Rip saw them.
Tense in the past. For a verb in this tense, 2. Rip was looking for his house

we write: was/were + verb + ing. when some dogs barked at him.
The Past Is used to refer to an earlier action 1. Many things had changed before

Perfect of two actions that took place in Rip returned to his village.
Tense the past. One of those actions took 2. They had packed the things
place before the other. For a verb before the taxi arrived.

in this tense, we write: had + past
participle form of the verb (third
form of the verb).

REMEMBER
The action that takes place first is expressed in the past perfect tense and the action that takes
place later is expressed in the simple past tense.

D. State whether the following sentences are in the simple past, past progressive or
past perfect tense.

1. She had read ‘Rip Van Winkle’ before we discussed
it in the class.

2. Rip Van Winkle was a lazy but good-natured man.

3. The villagers had forgotten Rip when he was away
for twenty years.

4. The villagers were whispering to each other when
Rip walked down the streets.

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