English Language Learners’
Reference Guide
from the Writing Center
Past Tenses
Form
Past Simple
Brown students studied every day
last semester. Professors did
interesting research last year. I
didn’t study in the library yesterday.
Did you study in the library?
Pas
t
Present
Brown students
studied every day last
semester.
This action started in the past and
finished in the past. The implication
is that the semester is over.
Meaning
The most common place to use the
simple past is:
-Completed Past Actions
Past Progressive
We were studying for the exam when
you called.
Present Perfect
We have studied English since 2011.
We are still studying in the present…
We were studying…
This happened first!
Past
Present
Past
Past Perfect
We had studied for four hours prior to
the exam.
…when you called.
Past
2011: We
started
studying…
We started studying in the past (in
2011) and this action continues to the
present. We use the present perfect to
connect the past and the present.
In this example, we were studying
around the time you called. The
studying was an action in progress in
the past at the moment you called.
Other examples:
The students were listening to the
professor while he explained the
assignment. Some students weren’t
listening? Were you listening?
The most common places to use the
past progressive are:
-To express actions in progress in the
past
-To express background action in the
past
Presen
t
Present
We also use the present perfect to
talk about “indefinite” time. When
you want to emphasize that you
have had an experience but it
doesn’t matter exactly when, you
choose this verb.
I have visited China many times.
When? In the past. In your
experience. To give more specific
information, we often shift to the
past simple.
I visited China in 2012.
The most common places to use the
present perfect are:
-To express actions that start in the past
and continue to the present
-To talk about the “indefinite” past; to
describe experiences you have had in
the past without connecting them to a
precise moment or a specific time.
We had
studied for
four hours.
Happ
We took the
exam.
Both of the above actions are in the
past. When we put the first verb into the
past perfect (“We had studied”), we
understand that it happened first. This
is true regardless of the sentence order.
Note: We took the exam after we had
studied for four hours. (We still studied
first!)
Other examples:
Had you studied English before moving
to the U.S.A.? I hadn’t eaten breakfast
before class and now I am starving!
The most common place to use the past
perfect is:
-To express a past action that
happened before some other past
action; commonly called the “earlier
past.”
Past Tenses
Continued
How to
use it
Past Simple
The affirmative uses the base form of
the verb +-ed. There are many
irregulars which also must be
memorized.*
I
You
We
They
walked.
He
She
It
walked.
*See the Irregular Verb Reference Guide
for a list of the most common irregulars.
Negatives
Use the auxiliary verb did + not.
-I did not walk. (I didn’t walk.)
-She did not walk. (She didn’t
walk.)
*Note the use of the past on do
means you don’t need it on the
verb!
Past Progressive
When creating any progressive tense,
BE is the auxiliary. In the present
progressive, be is in the past form:
WERE, and WAS. The verb must
always been in the gerund (-ing) form.
I
was
walking.
was
walking.
were
walking.
They
Use NOT between be and the
verb.
-I was not walking to class in the
rain. (I wasn’t walking…)
-She was not walking to class in
the rain. (She wasn’t walking…)
I
You
have
walked.
We
They
He
She
has
walked.
I
You
Subject
Verb
you
live?
you
living last year at this time?
you
lived in the U.S.A.?
you
lived before coming to Brown?
Yes/No Questions
Auxiliary
Subject
Verb
Did
you
eat lunch on campus?
Were
you
eating at the Ratty at noon today?
Have
you
eaten in the Ratty?
had
walked.
We
They
had
walked.
It
Use NOT between had and the
verb.
-I had not walked to school before I
bought a warm jacket. (I hadn’t
walked…)
-She had not walked to school
because she preferred the bus.
(She hadn’t walked…)
Asking questions in the Past Tenses
Basic questions follow a
specific formula in English.
You can use this formula
across verb tenses as long
as you update the auxiliary
and verb form.
Key Terms
Auxiliary Verbs: “Grammatical” verbs which do a job in the sentence but
don’t carry meaning. Because they “help” create a tense, a negation, or a
question, they are often called “helping verbs.”
Past Participle: For regular verbs, the past participle is the verb+ed. For irregular verbs, the past participle form is found in the third column. For example, the verb to speak is irregular and its
breakdown is: SPEAK SPOKE
SPOKEN. Spoken is the past participle to be used with simple perfect tenses. Note that the second column form, Spoke is to be used in the simple past.
Need more help: Email Rachel Toncelli, ELL Director, at ellwriting@brown.edu for a schedule of English Language Seminars.
He
She
It
Use NOT between have/has and
the verb.
-I have not walked to school this
year. (I haven’t walked…)
-She has not walked to school this
year. (She hasn’t walked…)
Information Questions
Question Word
Auxiliary
Where
did
Where
were
How long
have
What
had
Question Word
Past Perfect
Use the past of HAVE to create the past
perfect. Use HAD in all persons.
He
She
It
You
We
Present Perfect
When creating any perfect tense, HAVE
is the auxiliary. In the present perfect
have is in the present form: HAVE or
HAS. The verb must always be in the
past participle.