Past Tenses

Struggling with the different past tenses in English? In this video, we’ll compare the four main past tenses—Past Simple, Past Continuous, Past Perfect, and Past Perfect Continuous—and explain when to use each one. Through clear examples and easy-to-follow explanations, you’ll learn how to talk about actions in the past with confidence. We’ll also highlight key differences and common mistakes to help you master these tenses quickly. Perfect for English learners and anyone looking to improve their grammar skills—let’s make past tenses simple and fun!

Grammar

Practice how to use Past Tenses.

Transcript

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Introduction:

• Host: Hello and welcome to the English Magnet. Today’s video: Past Simple vs Past Continuous vs Past Perfect vs Past Perfect Continuous Made Easy! Yeah, we’re about to cover all past tenses and make it easy for you, if you don’t believe us, keep watching and let us know. Why are we doing this? Because there’s no way around the past when learning a language! So, let’s do a quick overview of their structures, compare their uses and focus on their discrepancies! Let’s do this! 

Part 1: Structures

1. Past Simple

• Structure: Subject + [verb ending in -ed or irregular form (V2)]
• Example: She finished her homework last night.

2. Past Continuous

• Structure: Subject + was/were + [-ING form]
• Example: I was reading when the phone rang.

3. Past Perfect

• Structure: Subject + had + [past participle]
• Example: They had left by the time I arrived.

4. Past Perfect Continuous

• Structure: Subject + had been + [-ING form]
• Example: He had been working for hours when he finally took a break.

(All four examples are shown on the screen). Here are a few cues to help you quickly distinguish past tenses by looking at their structures. 

Past Simple: It’s only one word (often ending in -ed or an irregular form), then you know you’re dealing with the past simple.

Past Continuous: Uses was/were + -ing form. If you see was/were followed by a verb ending in -ing, it’s the past continuous. Just remember that was/were on its own is the past simple of the verb ‘to be’!

Past Perfect: Always starts with had + past participle (V3 form). The only past tense formed with 2 words but not ending with an -ing form in the past. 

Past Perfect Continuous: 3 words, the first two always had been and then an -ing form for the last word. So, if had been is followed by a verb ending in -ing, it’s the past perfect continuous. ‘had been’ on its own is the past perfect of ‘to be’. 

If looking at the structure isn’t really your thing, let’s dive into their actual meanings, now.

Part 2: Uses and overlaps

Alright, let’s quickly list the main uses of each tense. 

1. Past Simple

1) Completed action in the past.

• Example: She painted the entire house last weekend.

2) General statement about the past

• Example: People used typewriters before computers.

3) Sequential events

• Example: He woke up, brushed his teeth, and then went for a run.

2. Past Continuous

1) Action in progress

• Example: She was reading a book at 9 pm last night.

2) Interrupted action 

• Example: I was cooking dinner when the phone rang.

3) Habit in the past

• Example: He was always forgetting his keys back then.

4) Background information

• Example: The sun was setting, and the frogs were croaking.

5) Length of an action

• Example: She was waiting for two hours before the bus finally arrived.

3. Past Perfect

1) Completed action before another action

• Example: She had finished her homework before she went to the movies.

2) Cause of a past effect

• Example: He was tired because he had worked all night.

3) Unreal Condition (hypothetical situation in the past)

• Example: If I had known about the meeting, I would have attended.

4) Reported Speech

• Example: He said he had already eaten when I called.

4. Past Perfect Continuous

1) Cause of a past effect

• Example: He was so dirty because he had been gardening all afternoon.

2) Interrupted action:

• Example: I had been cooking dinner when the power went out.

3) Persistent action

• Example: She had been traveling the world for years before settling down.

4) Completed action before another action

• Example: They had been discussing the plan for hours before the meeting started.

You might have noticed that the past perfect continuous seems to overlap with the past continuous and even the past perfect. If so, well done! The reason it does this is because the past perfect continuous focuses on the duration of an action. When expressing a cause (1 highlighted), the time the action took is key. In the example, gardening took all afternoon explaining the state of dirtiness. When expressing an interrupted action with the past perfect continuous (2 highlighted), the focus is the length of the action, perhaps the cooking was well under way in this case. When expressing a persistent action (3 highlighted), we again look at the duration of the action (for years) instead of a simple habit in the past which would be better suited with the past continuous. Finally, when expressing a completed action before another action, with the past perfect continuous the insistence is on the time the first action took (for hours in our example) It’s not simply about an action happening before another one, more about how long it took. Now that we’ve done an overview of past tense uses, let’s look at slight differences in past tenses while focusing on the same situation.

Part 3: Variations

Let’s look at the same sentence and its difference in meaning when using different past tenses. Please note that one action will remain in the past simple as it helps anchor the events in the past. Very often the other past tenses aren’t found alone in a vacuum but rather alongside the past simple. 

1. I woke up and my partner made coffee. (past simple)
   • Here the two actions are sequential and completed: I woke up, and then my partner made coffee. The actions are separate, with no overlap in time. So I woke up and later coffee was made. 
2. I woke up and my partner was making coffee. (past continuous)
   • Here my partner was in the middle of making coffee when I woke up. The actions overlap, as the coffee-making was already ongoing at the moment I woke up. So I woke up and could hear the coffee being made. 
3. I woke up and my partner had made coffee. (past perfect)
   • Here my partner finished making coffee before I woke up. The past perfect emphasizes that the coffee-making was completed at an earlier point before my waking up. So I woke up and the coffee was already prepared. 
4. I woke up and my partner had been making coffee.  (past perfect continuous)
   • This suggests my partner was making coffee for a period of time before I woke up, but it’s not clear if my partner finished or was interrupted. The past perfect continuous emphasizes the duration of the action before the point when I woke up; perhaps it’s a fancy Italian coffee requiring a lot of preparation! So I woke up and the coffee was about to be done and I can smell its aroma as it’s dripping out of the coffee machine. 

It’s unusual, but you can even pack all 4 tenses in a single sentence: 

I had been waiting (past perfect continuous) for an hour when I finally saw (past simple) the bus coming down the road; it was moving (past continuous) so slowly because it had broken down (past perfect) earlier.

Here:

• the past perfect continuous shows a prolonged action (“waiting”) before another past event.
• the past simple marks the main completed action (“saw”).
• the past continuous describes a background ongoing action (“was moving”).
• the past perfect gives the reason for the delay (“had broken down”).

Wrap upHost: That’s it for past tenses! Both structures and uses give telltale signs of the exact tense you are dealing with! Practice makes perfect, so click the link to some free material in the description below. Hopefully, this has been helpful. Keep practicing, and you’ll get the hang of it. Thank you for watching. Until next time!