To describe ongoing, continuous past actions and completed past actions respectively understanding Past continuous and past perfect tense is essential.
Past perfect tense is also called “Past of the past” as it describes the actions happened in the complete past.
In the formation of perfect past, it is related with simple past tense to show the perfect or completed actions.
Simple past tense is the basic or general past used to express past actions, events, or state of being with general time references.
I visited Tadoba National Park for first time.
I saw the Ganga River when we visited Himalayan region.
She often made such silly mistakes.
We followed new way for treaking.
Once, it was a barren wasteland.
On the other hand, continuous past describes the ongoing past actions with specific time references.
In summer, hot wind was blowing there. Hence, we were suffering from dehydration.
He was addressing a rally on Sunday when I called him for interview.
Suddenly, she saw a snake when she was jogging in the early morning.
Continuous past needs conjugated forms of verb with -ing, and helping verbs such as “to be”
Past continuous can be used with other tense forms as well.
Explaining formation of continuous past tense
Continuous past tense expresses continuous actions or activities either in distant past or recent past.
In short, it indicates specific time references to current utterance.
Progressive past to indicate distant past
In the Czar rule, Russian were struggling to meet basic needs.
European countries were competing with one another to capture market in the post industrial revolution.
Recent past by continuous past tense
Day before, players were seriously practicing for important match.
Really, they were playing beautifully when it started raining.
Yesterday, as soon as I opened my eyes I saw it was raining heavily outside.
I reached at the school when students were writing exam.
Describing Correct use of perfect past and simple past tense
After past continuous and past perfect tense, comparative study between simple past and perfect past tense is necessary.
To show the action completed in past, past perfect tense is used. It is also termed as “Past of the past“. Generally, it is used with simple past tense.
Here, conjugated forms of have, main verb and time references are key necessary components to form perfect past.
Had + past participle + before + simple past
Simply, used to describe before of the before at the time of expression.
We had covered our food grains before it started raining. (before- conjunction of time indicates time of reference)
They had reached at the hospital before we arranged ambulance. (we were trying to arrange an ambulance but before that they reached at the hospital)
She looked so weak as she hadn’t recovered totally.
My mom had already cooked when we reached for dinner.
In this type, one action follows other just completed. It means that completed action shows past perfect and later in the simple past.
“Before” conjunction of time is necessary to show two different actions in sequence.
Time reference in the form of adverbial is not necessary to form perfect past tense. Actually, it is highlighted by “before”.
This is all about the simple, continuous and perfect past tense. I have explained meaning, rules of formation, and examples of simple, continuous and perfect past tense.
Understanding Simple past tense