Past Tenses

Look at this sample situation:

A story told by two friends after a weekend trip:

Maya: We went to the mountains on Saturday morning. The weather was great.

Leo: Nice! When I called you, you were climbing a hill, right?

Maya: Yes! By the time you phoned, we had already reached the top of the first hill.

Leo: Wow. And you had been walking for hours before lunch, I guess?

Maya: Exactly! We were so tired but it was amazing.

You can see from these examples that:

The past simple is used for finished actions in the past. The actions took place at a definite time in the past, which is either mentioned or implied:

Common time expressions inlude: yesterday, last (week/month/year), ago, in (+year), when (I was a child).

The past continuous can be used:

To describe actions in progress at a specific moment in the past or to set the background in a story:

To describe a repeated action in the past, often an annoying habit with the adverb always:

To give a polite or uncertain meaning with the verbs think, hope and wonder:

Common time expressions inlude: while, as, when, at (+ time).

The past perfect simple refers to an action that happened before another past action:

Common time expressions include: before, after, by the time, already, just, by (+ a certain time).

The past perfect continuous emphasises/focuses on the duration of an action before a past moment/another past action:

Common time expressions include: all (morning/day/night/week), for, since, until then, before, by.

Structure

Past simple

Affirmative: Subject + past form of verb

Negative: Subject + did not/didn't + base form of verb

Question: Did + subject + base form of verb

Note: Regular verbs add ed (play becomes played). Irregular verbs have unique past forms (go becomes went).

Past continuous

Affirmative: Subject + was/were + verb-ing

Negative: Subject + was/were + not + verb-ing

Question: Was/were + subject + verb-ing?

Note: As with all continuous tenses, verbs ending in e, drop the e and add ing (write to writing). Most verbs ending in vowel + consonant, double the consonant (e.g. swim to swimming). Verbs ending in y, add ing (e.g. try to trying).

Past perfect simple

Affirmative: Subject + had + past participle

Negative: Subject + had not/hadn't + past participle

Question: Had + subject + past participle?

Past perfect continuous

Affirmative: Subject + had + been + verb-ing

Negative: Subject + had not/hadn’t + been + verb-ing

Question: Had + subject + been + verb-ing?

Key Differences

Past simple vs past continuous

means that the moment she arrived, I started watching TV but:

means that I was already watching TV when she arrived so her arrival interrupted my watching TV.

Past simple vs past perfect simple

means that eating happened before they arrived.

means that both actions happened simultaneously.

Past perfect simple vs past perfect continuous

 focuses on the completion or result of  the action.

focuses on the duration of the action/activity.

In the FCE exam

You'll find and use these tenses everywhere in English and in the FCE exam of course but here are a few possible uses:

Reading and Use of English

In part 4 (key word transformations), you might have to transform between past forms:

I started learning English three years before I met him.

BEEN 

I _____________________________ three years when I met him.

Answer: had been learning English for

We finished dinner and then went for a walk.

AFTER

We went for a walk _____________________________ dinner.

Answer: after we had finished

Writing

Stories/articles: Use past simple for main events, past continuous for description or background and past perfect to show earlier actions. These tenses are called narrative tenses as they are used to tell anecdotes or stories:

Speaking

Part 1: Talking about past experiences:

Now try these exercises!