Past tenses — lesson. Test Subject 1, Demo Exercises.

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Study the information about the past tenses. Remember them.

Tense	Affirmative/negative/ question	Use	Signal words
Past simple	Form: [verb+ed] or irregular verbs A: He spoke N: He did not speak. Q: Did he speak?	Actions in the past taking place once, never or several times. Action taking place one after another. Action taking place in the middle of another action.	Yesterday, 2 minutes ago, in 1990, the other day, last Friday, 'if-sentences' type II.
Past continuous	Form: [was/were + present participle] A: He was speaking. N: He was not speaking. Q: Was he speaking?	Action going on at a certain time in the past. Actions taking place at the same time. Action in the past that is interrupted by another action.	When, while, as long as, from____to____yesterday, the whole evening
Past perfect	Form: [had + past participle] A: He had spoken. N: He had not spoken. Q: Had he spoken?	Action taking place before a certain time in the past. Sometimes interchangeable with the past perfect progressive. Putting emphasis only on the fact (not the duration).	Already, just, never, not yet, once, until that day, 'if-sentences' type III, by the time
Past perfect continuous	Form: [had + been + present participle] A: He had been speaking. N: He had not been speaking. Q: Had he been speaking?	Action taking place before a certain time in the past. Sometimes interchangeable with the past perfect. Putting emphasis on the duration or course of an action.	For, since, the whole day, all day, for 20 minutes, for 3 hours.

Example:

There was a wonderful film on TV yesterday. (the past simple)

We were discussing many things from 5 to 6 yesterday. (the past continuous)

I had read this biik by 4 pm yesterday. (the past perfect)

We were tired. We had been running for 2 hours. (the past perfect continuous)

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3. Past tenses

Theory: