Verb Tenses

Simple Past Tense

It indicates an action in the past.

The action is already finished.
 Time Indicators:
• yesterday
• last week
• last month
• last year
• last Thursday
• last decade
• last night
Two ways on how to change a verb into
its Past form:
a. Regular Verbs
- they are formed by adding –
d or –ed to the base form of
the verb.
Ex.
illustrate- illustrated
cover- covered
dare- dared
She illustrated the
framework of language
teaching yesterday.
Paulo covered his
notebook last Tuesday.
b. Irregular Verbs
- they are formed by
changing certain letters in
the word.
Ex.
fight- fought
teach- taught
write- wrote
lay- laid
Janice wrote a poem last
week.
Mrs. Reyes taught us how
to make an autobiography.
 Past Perfect Tense

It is formed with an auxiliary

verb “had” plus the past
participle of the verb.
 Uses:
 It expresses an activity that was completed before
another activity or time in the past.

Examples:
1. We had stayed in the hotel for five days before
we moved to another place.
2. Julie had already begun her teaching job when
she decided to enrol in a business course.
 Past Progressive Tense
 It is a verb form that indicates an
incomplete or ongoing action or state that
began, continued and ended at some point
in the past.

 Form of the Verb:

was/were plus add –ing to the main verb
 Time Indicators:
when
as
just as
while
 Uses:

To show politeness in inquiries.

To show longer action which began
before something else occurred.
To show parallel actions done in the
past.