PAST TENSE | Simple, Continuous, Perfect | Learn English Grammar Course

Hi, everybody. I’m Esther. 

In this video, I will introduce the past tense. We’ll talk about the past simple, past continuous,  

past perfect, and past perfect continuous tense. There’s a lot to study,  

and there’s a lot to practice. So let’s get started.

Hi, everyone.

In this video, I will introduce the past simple English tense.

This grammar tense can help you explain a past general state, action, or habit.

There's a lot to learn and it's a very important tense, so keep watching.

In this video, I will talk about the 'be' verb

in the past simple tense.

The 'be' verb in the past simple tense can be used to describe a past general state.

We use the 'be' verbs, ‘was’ and ‘were’ in this tense.

Take a look at the examples.

‘I was scared.’

‘James', or he 'was a teacher.’

‘She was sad.’

‘My dog was hungry.’

‘My dog’ can be ‘it’.

So for ‘I’, ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘it’, we use the past tense 'be' verb, ‘was’.

However, for ‘you’, ‘we’ and ‘they’, we use ‘were’.

‘You were a good student.’

‘Your parents, or they were at the park.’ and ‘We were at home for two hours.’

In this last sentence, you see that the duration is emphasized.

Great job.

Let's move on.

Now I will talk about regular verbs in the past simple tense.

Take a look at these examples.

‘Liam played a game.’

Liam is a ‘he’,

but really it doesn't matter for regular verbs in the past simple tense.

Because no matter what the subject is, all we have to do is add ‘d’ or ‘ed’

to the end of the verb.

Here the verb is ‘play’, so I added ‘-ed’.

‘Liam played a game.’

‘The car, or it needed gas.’

The verb here is ‘need’.

For the past simple tense, I added ‘-ed’.

‘We watched a movie.’

Again, an ‘ed’ at the of ‘watch’.

‘You exercised for an hour.’

In this case, the verb is ‘exercise’.

I only need to add a ‘d’ to make it the past tense.

And finally, ‘They usually worked after school.’

The verb is ‘work’.

And I added an ‘ed’ to make it in the past tense.

The word ‘usually’ shows that this was a habit.

Remember, the past simple tense can be used to show past habits.

Let's move on.

Now, I'll talk about irregular verbs in the past simple tense.

Remember, for regular verbs, we only add ‘d’ or ‘ed’ to make a verb into the past tense.

However, for irregular verbs, we have to change the verb in a different way.

Let's take a look at some examples.

‘I ate with my friend.’

The verb here is ‘ate’.

‘ate’ is the past simple tense of ‘eat’.

The next example says, ‘Nara wrote a story.’

The verb is ‘write’.

And because it's irregular to change it into the past tense, we change the verb to ‘wrote’.

‘You often came home late.’

The verb here is ‘come’ and it's been changed to ‘came’.

You'll notice that we had the word ‘often’ to show a habit.

‘We bought a camera.’

The verb here is ‘buy’ and it's been changed to ‘bought’ to show the past simple tense.

And finally, ‘My parents sent me money for a year.’

Here the verb ‘sent’ is the past tense of ‘send’.

Here we also see ‘for a year’, this shows duration.

Let's move on.

Now I will talk about the negative form for the 'be' verb in the past simple tense.

Here are some examples.

The first one says, ‘I was not hungry.’

For the past simple tense, the negative 'be' verb

I f the subject is ‘I’, ‘he’, ‘she’ or ‘it’, we say ‘was not’.

For example, ‘I was not’ or ‘she was not’ or the contraction ‘wasn't’.

‘I wasn't’.

‘She wasn't’.

So let's look again, ‘I was not hungry.’

‘She wasn't home today.’

Now, if the subject is ‘you’, ‘we’ or ‘they’,

We say ‘were not’ or the contraction ‘weren't’.

‘The children, or they were not quiet.’

‘The children were not quiet.’

And then, ‘The dog', or it was not, or 'wasn't playful.’

Let's move on.

Now, let's talk about how to form the negative in the past simple tense for non-'be' verbs,

regular or irregular.

Here are some examples.

‘I did not like him.’

What we do for non-'be' verbs is simply put ‘did not’ after the subject.

And you'll notice that for the verb, we don't make any changes.

We keep the base verb.

‘He didn't catch the ball.’

Again, it's ‘he did not’, but here we used a contraction,

‘He didn't catch the ball.’

‘They didn't dance.’

Again, here's the contraction for ‘did not’.

And you'll notice that for the verb, we didn't change it at all.

Here's an irregular verb, and here's a regular verb, we keep them in the base form.

And finally, ‘We didn't think about that.’

Again, we simply say ‘did not’ or ‘didn't’.

Let's move on.

Now I will introduce two ways to form questions for the past simple tense.

Take a look at the first example.

‘He was angry.’

In this first sentence, we see the 'be' verb ‘was’.

It's quite easy.

All you have to do to turn this into a question is switch the order the first two words.

‘Was he angry?’

You can answer by saying ‘Yes, he was.’ or ‘No, he wasn't.’

The next sentence also has a 'be' verb.

‘They were comfortable.’

So again, switch the first two words.

‘Were they comfortable?’

The answers can be, ‘Yes, they were.’

or ‘No, they weren't.’

However, look at the third sentence.

‘Sam lived here.’

There is no 'be' verb in this sentence.

Instead, we see the action verb ‘lived’.

So what we do is no matter what the subject,

we start the question with ‘did’.

‘Did Sam live here?’

You'll notice that the verb no longer is in the past tense.

We use the base form of the verb.

‘Did Sam live here?’

You can say ‘Yes, he did.’

or ‘No, he didn't.’

The last sentence is similar.

‘They won the contest last year.’

The verb here is ‘won’, that's not a 'be' verb.

So again, we start the question with ‘did’ .

And then the subject ‘they’, we use the base form of the verb and that's ‘win’.

‘Did they win the contest last year?’

You can say, ‘Yes, they did.’

or ‘No, they didn't.’

Let's move on.

Now I'll introduce how to create an answer WH questions in the past simple tense.

Take a look at the board.

We have some WH words here.

‘What’ ‘When’

‘Where’ and ‘Why’

You'll notice that after each WH word comes the word ‘did’.

‘What did’ ‘When did’

‘Where did’ and ‘Why did’.

What comes after that the subject and then the base form of the verb.

So, let's take a look.

‘What did you do last night?’

‘What did you do last night?’

I can answer by saying something like, ‘I watched a movie.’

Or ‘I read a book.’

You'll notice that the answer is in the past simple tense.

‘When did you get home last night?’

‘I got home at 10 p.m.’

‘Where did they eat lunch?’

‘They ate lunch at home.’

Again, ‘ate’ is the past tense of ‘eat’.

Answer in the past simple tense.

And finally, ‘Why did the company hire him?’

‘The company hired him because he's a hard worker.’

Let's move on.

In this first checkup, we'll take a look at

practice questions using the 'be' verb in the past simple tense.

Remember the 'be' verbs in the past simple tense are ‘was’ or ‘were’.

Let's take a look at the first sentence.

‘He __ at work earlier.’

The subject here is ‘we’.

So do we use ‘was’ or ‘were’?

The correct answer is ‘was’.

‘He was at work earlier.’

The next sentence says,

‘We _____ very happy yesterday.’

If the subject is ‘we’, remember the be verb is ‘were’.

‘We were very happy yesterday.’

Next, ‘My parents or they __ worried about me.’

If it's 'they', remember we have to say ‘were’.

‘My parents were worried about me.’

If I want to use the negative, I can also say ‘My parents weren't worried about me.’

And that's possible.

Now I want you to find the mistake in the next sentence.

‘We wasn't good students.’

We wasn't good students.

Can you figure out what's wrong?

The subject here is ‘we’, so we don't say ‘was not’.

We need to say ‘were not’ or the contraction ‘weren't’.

‘We weren't good students,’ is the correct answer.

The next one says, ‘Were she a teacher?’

Now, this is a question so the be verb comes at the beginning.

That's correct, but the subject here is ‘she’.

Therefore, we need to start with ‘was’.

‘Was she a teacher?’

And finally,

‘They wasn't at school.’

The subject is ‘they’, so the answer is

‘They weren't at school.’

You can use the contraction ‘weren't’ or ‘were not’.

Let's move on to the next checkup.

Now, let's practice regular verbs in the past simple tense.

Take a look at the first sentence.

‘He ____ at home.’

The verb is ‘study’.

Remember, when changing a regular verb into

the past tense, we add ‘d’ or ‘ed’ to the end of the

verb.

However, there's a separate rule for words that end in ‘y’.

Such as, ‘study’.

We drop the ‘y’ and we add ‘ied’.

So the correct answer is,

‘He studied at home.’

The next sentence says, ‘We __ pencils.’

We want to use negative because it says ‘not use’.

Remember for the negative, we always use ‘did not’, no matter what the subject.

You can also use the contraction ‘didn't’.

Now, what do we do to the verb?

We keep it as ‘is’.

We do not change it.

‘We didn't’ or ‘We did not’ use pencils.

The next sentence says, ‘His friends or they walk to the gym.’

What's the past tense of ‘walk’?

We simply have to add ‘ed’ because it's a regular verb.

‘His friends walked to the gym.’

Now, find a mistake in the next sentence.

‘She didn't likes math.’

‘didn't’ is correct.

However, remember we keep the verb as ‘is’ in the base form.

So we don't say ‘likes’.

We say ‘like’.

‘She didn't like math.’

The next sentence says, ‘Did it rained this morning?’

Now this is a question.

In a question, it’s right to start the sentence with ‘Did’.

‘Did it rained?’

Do you notice the mistake?

Remember, we do not use the past tense form in the question.

We use the base form of the verb.

‘Did it rain this morning?’

And finally, ‘They not play the piano.’

The verb is an action verb.

So we need a ‘did’ in front of ‘not’.

‘They did not play the piano.’

Let's move on to the next checkup.

Now, I'll talk about irregular verbs in the past simple tense.

Take a look at the first sentence.

‘He __ to school.’

And the verb is ‘run’.

‘run’ is an irregular verb, so the past tense form is ‘ran’.

‘He ran to school.’

The next sentence says, ‘We __ flowers.’

We want to use the negative because here it says ‘not grow’.

Remember, no matter what the subject in the negative form,

we say ‘did not’

or ‘didn't’.

Then we keep the verb in its base form.

‘We did not grow’ or ‘We didn't grow flowers.’

The next sentence says, ‘Where __ you teach last year?’

This is a question.

Again, all we need to put is ‘did’.

‘Where did you teach last year?’

It doesn't matter what the subject is.

We always go with ‘did’.

Next, try to find the mistake in the next sentence.

‘He didn't sold newspapers.’

Remember, in the negative, ‘didn't’ is correct for whatever subject there is.

However, we need to keep the verb in its base form.

So the correct answer is, ‘He didn't sell newspapers.’

The next sentence says, ‘Did she sing a song?’

You'll notice it's a similar problem here.

‘sang’ is the irregular past tense form of ‘sing’.

But in a question, if it starts with ‘did’,

we use the base form.

‘Did she sing a song?’

And finally, ‘We taked it home.’

Does that sound right?

‘taked’ is not correct.

The past tense of ‘take’ is ‘took’.

‘We took it home.’

Great job, everyone.

Let's move on.

Wow, we learned a lot in this video.

Keep studying and reviewing the past simple tense.

It's an essential tense that will help you talk about the past.

Keep studying English and I'll see you in the next video.

Bye. 

Hi, everybody.

I'm Esther.

In this video.

I will introduce the past continuous tense.

This tense can be used to describe an action that was ongoing in the past.

It can also be used to describe two actions happening at the same time in the past.

There's a lot to learn so let's get started.

Let's take a look at the first usage of the past continuous tense.

This tense can be used to describe an action that was ongoing in the past.

Let's take a look at these examples.

‘I was walking in the park in the evening.’

So first we start with the subject, ‘I’.

For I, he, she, and it, we follow with ‘was’.

‘I was’

And then we add an ‘ING’ to the end of the verb.

‘I was walking’

Now take a look at the whole sentence.

‘I was walking in the park in the evening.’

You can see that this was an ongoing action and it happened in the past.

Let's look at the next example.

‘She was living here last year.’

Here, the subject is ‘she’.

So again we use ‘was’ and then ‘verb-ing’.

Here we have another expression that shows that this action was happening in the past.

‘The dog,’ or ‘it’, ‘was eating dinner five minutes ago.’

The subject here is ‘the dog’ which can be replaced by the pronoun ‘it’.

And so we follow with ‘was’.

And finally, ‘Andy and Jim,’ we can replace this with ‘they’.

For ‘you’, ‘we’ and ‘they’, we use ‘were’.

‘They were’, or ‘Andy and Jim were working at 9:00 p.m.’

Let's move on.

The past continuous tense is also used to describe an ongoing

action in the past that was interrupted by another action.

This interrupting action is used in the past simple tense with the word ‘when’.

Let's take a look at this example.

‘I was playing cards when you called.’

Again we start with the subject ‘was’ or ‘were’,

and then ‘verb-ing’,

so this is the action that was ongoing in the past,

‘I was playing cards’

The interrupting action in this sentence is ‘you called’.

You'll notice I use the word ‘when’ to show the interrupting action’

And I used it in the past simple tense, ‘called’.

Let's take a look at the next sentence.

‘The cat' or 'it' was eating when Eric came home.’

Again the action in progress is ‘the cat was eating’.

And ‘Eric came home’, you'll notice the past simple tense.

This is the interrupting action used with the word ‘when’.

‘We were sleeping when Anne arrived.’

Again we have the ongoing action in the past.

The subject here is ‘we’.

And so we used ‘were’ and then ‘verb-ing’.

‘When Anne arrived’ is the interrupting action.

And finally, ‘Alicia and I’, or ‘We' were walking when we saw Mark.’

‘When we saw Mark’ is the interrupting action that interrupted the ongoing ‘Alicia

and I were walking’.

It's also important to note that we can also switch the order of the sentence around and

say,

‘When you called, I was playing cards,’

or ‘When Eric came home, the cat was eating.’

Let's move on.

Another usage for the past continuous tense is to talk about two actions that were

happening at the same time in the past.

We use the past continuous tense for both actions with the word ‘while’.

Let's take a look at some examples.

The first sentence says, ‘While I was playing soccer, she was watching

me.’

You'll notice that both actions are in the past continuous tense.

‘I was playing soccer’ and ‘She was watching me’.

The word ‘while’ at the beginning shows that these actions were happening at the sametime.

‘While you were reading, I was preparing dinner.’

Again both actions are expressed in the past continuous tense.

The word ‘while’ shows that they were happening at the same time.

‘While Her husband’ or ‘he’, ‘was driving

she was taking pictures.’

Both actions are in the past continuous tense.

And finally,

‘While we were eating, the music was playing.’

Both actions were happening at the same time.

Now, you'll notice that in my examples the word ‘while’ comes at the beginning,

however, it's important to note that you can move the word ‘while’ around in several

ways.

For example, instead of saying this,

‘While I was playing soccer, she was watching me.’

I can move ‘while’ to the middle of the sentence.

‘I was playing soccer while she was watching me.’

I can put the ‘while’ between the two actions.

Or I can also change the sentence around and say,

‘While she was watching me, I was playing soccer.’

So it doesn't matter which action comes first with the ‘while’ if you put it in the

beginning.

Let's move on.

Now let's talk about the negative form of the past continuous tense.

Here are some examples.

‘She was not reading last night.’

The subject is ‘she’ and so we use ‘was’.

However, before the ‘verb-ing’, we add ‘not’.

‘She was not reading last night.’

I can use a contraction and say,

‘She wasn't reading last night.’

‘We were not listening to music this morning.’

In this case, the subject is ‘we’ and so we use ‘were’.

Again ‘not’ comes before the ‘verb-ing’.

‘We were not listening to music this morning.’

Again I can use a contraction and say,

‘We weren't listening to music this morning.’

And the next one says, ‘He wasn't watching TV when his dad came

home.’

In this example, the contraction is already there for you,

‘He wasn't watching TV’.

You'll notice the word ‘when’.

Remember ‘when’ + ‘a past simple tense verb’ shows an interrupting action,

so, ‘When his dad came home he wasn't watching TV.’

He was doing something else.

And finally,

‘They weren't talking while the game was playing.’

The word ‘while’ is in this sentence.

Remember that shows 2 past ongoing actions happening at the same time,

so ‘While the game was playing they weren't talking’.

They were doing something else.

Let's move on now.

Let's talk about how to form ‘be’ verb questions for the past continuous tense.

Take a look at the first statement.

It says,

‘It was raining this morning.’

In order to turn this into a question, it's quite easy,

all we have to do is change the order of the first two words.

Instead of ‘It was’, I now say ‘Was it’ to make it a question.

You'll notice that the rest of the words stay in the same place.

‘Was it raining this morning?’

You can answer by saying, ‘Yes, it was.’ or ‘No, it wasn't.’

The next statement says,

‘They were living there when the fire happened.’

To turn this into a big question, again we just switched the order of the first two words.

Instead of ‘They were’, we say ‘Were they’.

And again, the rest of the words can stay in the same place.

‘Were they living there when the fire happened?’

And you can answer by saying,

‘Yes, they were’ or ‘No, they weren't.’

Let's continue on.

Now I'll go into how to make WH questions for the past continuous tense.

You'll notice that the examples here all begin with some WH words.

For example, ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘why’, and ‘who’.

Let's take a look at the first question.

‘What were they doing last night?”

The subject of this sentence is ‘they’.

So what you do is after the WH word you put the proper ‘be’ verb.

In this case, ‘were’.

‘What were they doing last night?’

You'll notice that after the subject comes the ‘verb-ing’.

‘What were they doing last night?’

I can answer by saying, ‘They were playing games’ or

‘They were reading a book’.

The next question says,

‘Where was he working last week?’

In this case the subject is ‘he’ and so the be verb to use is ‘was’.

‘Where was he working last week?’

I can say, ‘He was working in Canada.’

‘Why was she crying when she finished the book?’

In this case, the subject is ‘she’ and so I put ‘was’ after ‘why’.

‘Why was she crying when she finished the book?’

I can say, ‘She was crying because the ending was sad.’

And finally,

‘Who were the children staying with while their mom was working?’

In this case, ‘the children’ is a ‘they’

so we follow 'who' with ‘were’.

‘Who were they’ or

‘Who were the children staying with while their mom was working?’

To answer, I can say, ‘The children’ or

‘They were staying with their dad.’

Let's move on.

In this section, let's do a checkup for the past continuous tense.

Take a look at the first sentence.

‘Last night they were blank at school.’

I want you to try to fill in the blank with the negative for the verb ‘stay’.

‘not stay’

What do you think it is?

Remember, for the negative of the past continuous,

all you have to do is put ‘not’ and then ‘verb-ing’ after the 'be' verb.

‘They were not staying at school last.’

‘Last night, they were not staying at school.’

The next sentence says,

‘Two days ago you blank soccer.’

Again try the negative for the verb ‘play’.

‘Two days ago blank not play soccer.’

In this case, the first thing that's missing is the ‘be’ verb.

If the subject is ‘you’, can you think of which be verb needs to be put in there?

The correct answer is ‘were’.

And then, we say ‘not’.

What happens after that?

Remember, ‘verb-ing’.

So ‘you were not playing’

‘two days ago, you were not playing soccer’

You can also use a contraction and say,

‘You weren't playing soccer.’

Now try to find the mistake in the next sentence.

‘Yesterday, she were reading at home.’

hmmm

The subject of this sentence is ‘she’ so the ‘be’ verb to use is not ‘were’.

It's 'was'.

‘Yesterday, she was reading at home.’

In the next sentence it says, ‘Tomorrow, they were seeing their friends.’

hmmm

‘They’ and ‘were’

That's correct.

And we have the ‘verb-ing’

So what's the mistake?

Remember the past continuous is for the past.

‘Tomorrow’ is not the past.

So instead, we need to put a word that shows the past.

For example, I can say, ‘yesterday’.

‘Yesterday, they were seeing their friends.’

Let's move on.

Now, let's start a checkup of the ‘when’ usage

of the past continuous tense.

Take a look at the first example.

It says, ‘Andrea and John’ blank when they bank hurt.’

Remember ‘when’ shows an interrupting action.

It needs to be used with the past simple tense.

So let's first look at the second blank.

‘When they blank hurt’

What's the past tense of the verb ‘get’?

The answer is ‘got’.

Now let's take a look at the action that was in progress in the past.

‘Andrea and John’ or ‘they’

Well what comes after ‘they’?

‘were’.

‘Andrea and John were’

Then remember we need to add -ing to the verb.

‘They were skiing’ or ‘Andrea and John were skiing when they got hurt’.

The next example says, ‘It blank not raining when the game blank’.

And I want you to use the verb ‘start’ for the second blank.

Take a look ‘when the game blank’ what's the past tense of ‘start’?

‘started’

Now let's look at the first part of the sentence.

The subject is ‘it’.

So what ‘be’ verb do we use for 'it'?

‘was’

‘It was not raining when the game started.’

Now find the mistake in the next sentence.

‘I wasn't study at the library yesterday’.

The subject here is ‘I’ and so the ‘be’ verb ‘was’ is correct.

Here there's a contraction, ‘I wasn't’ for ‘I was not’.

Now the problem is with the verb.

Remember we need to put ‘–ing’ at the end of the verb.

‘I wasn't studying at the library yesterday.’

And finally, ‘We did meet our friends last weekend.’

That sounds right, but remember we're doing the past continuous tense.

Take a look again.

The subject is ‘we’.

We need a ‘be’ verb.

‘were’

Then what happens?

Remember, we need to add an ‘-ing’ to the end of the verb,

so we take out ‘did’ and say, ‘We were meeting our friends last weekend.’

Let's move on.

Now, for this checkup, we'll look at the ‘while’ usage of the past continuous tense.

Take a look at the first example.

‘While I blank someone blank my bike.’

When we use ‘while’ in the past continuous tense,

we're showing that two actions happened at the same time in the past

or they were happening at the same time in the past.

So we need to use the past continuous for both actions.

‘While I blank’

I want you to use ‘shop’ in the first blank.

Remember, the subject here is ‘I’ so I need to use the ‘be’ verb ‘was’.

Then ‘verb-ing’.

‘While I was shopping’

Now ‘someone’ can be a ‘he’ or ‘she’.

Therefore, again we need to use ‘was’

and then the ‘verb-ing’ of ‘steal’.

‘While I was shopping, someone was stealing my bike.’

The next sentence says,

‘While he blank’

I want you to use the verb ‘cook’.

The subject is ‘he’ and so I need to use ‘was cooking’.

‘While he was cooking, his girlfriend was cleaning.’

Did you get that?

Let's move on.

Try to find the mistake in the next sentence.

‘Jane was looking for us while we get off the plane.’

The first part of the sentence is correct.

‘Jane was looking’

Now the second part of the sentence.

Notice it's not in the past continuous tense.

‘While we get off the plane’

So what we need to do is say, ‘were getting’.

‘Jane was looking for us while we were getting off the plane.’

The next sentence says, 'I was watching TV while my wife sleep’

Again this part of the sentence did not use the past continuous tense.

My wife is a ‘she’ and so I need to say ‘was sleeping’.

‘I was watching TV while my wife was sleeping.’

Great job, everyone.

Let's move on.

Good job, everybody in learning the past  

continuous tense.

This tense can be a little difficult and a little tricky.

Especially when it comes to the ‘when’ and ‘while’ usage.

It'll take some practice to really master it, but I know you can do it.

Keep studying English and I'll see you in the next video. 

Hi, everybody.

I'm Esther.

In this video, I will introduce the past perfect tense.

This tense is used to describe an action that took place at a specific time in the past.

This tense can be a little tricky, but don't worry I will guide you through it.

There's so much to learn and it's a very important tense.

So keep watching.

Let's take a look at the first usage of the past perfect tense.

This tense can be used to describe an action in the past

that happened before another action in the past.

Here are some examples.

‘I have visited China before I moved there.’

No matter what the subject you follow with ‘had’,

So that's easy.

‘I had’ ‘Steve had’

‘The plane had’ and ‘We had’.

Then, we follow with the past participle of the verb.

In this case, it's ‘visited’.

‘I had visited China.’

Now you'll notice that the second verb is in the past simple tense.

‘I moved there.’

And I'll talk about that a little bit more later on.

‘Steve had bought the book.’

Again, ‘subject’, ‘had’ and ‘past participle’.

In this case, the verb is ‘buy’.

‘Steve had bought the book before he read it.’

Again, we have the simple tense of ‘read’ which is ‘read’.

And finally, ‘The plane had left by the time I got to the airport.’

Again, the first part of this sentence is in the past perfect tense.

‘The plane had left’.

This is the past participle of ‘leave’.

The second verb says, ‘I got to the airport.’

‘got’ is the past tense of ‘get’.

Now what these three sentences have in common is that you'll see, ‘before’.

‘before’ or ‘by the time’.

They all mean the same thing.

The verb that is in the past perfect tense happened first.

The verb that's in the past simple tense happen after.

So again, for the first example.

‘before I move there’ That happened later.

Before that, ‘I had already visited China.’

Do you understand how that works?

Let's take a look at the last example.

‘When they arrived, we had already started the game.’

So maybe they were late or something had happened.

But ‘When they arrived’, this is the past simple tense.

So this happened second.

‘We had already started the game.’

This action had already started.

It started before this action.

Let's move on.

Earlier I mentioned that the past perfect tense can be used to describe an action

that happened in the past before another action in the past.

We can do the same thing but also emphasize the duration.

How long that first action happened.

We do this by using four and a duration.

Let's take a look.

‘I had owned my computer for two months before it broke.’

This is very similar to the first usage.

‘I had’ and the past participle of the verb.

This part shows the action that happened earlier in the past.

The second part, ‘it broke’.

The past simple tense verb shows the action in the past

that happened later than the first action.

However, you'll notice that this sentence has a duration, ‘for two months’.

‘I had owned my computer for two months before it broke.’

All I'm doing here is showing how long the first action had been true.

Let's take a look at the next example.

‘Jim had been lonely for a long time until he got a puppy.’

Again, we have subject ‘had’, past participle.

And then we have the past simple ‘he got a puppy’.

All we're doing here is emphasizing how long first action had been true.

He had been lonely for a long time.

That is until the later action, ‘he got a puppy.’

And finally, ‘She and I had been friends for many years before she became my wife.’

The first part of the sentence is the past perfect.

It happened before she became my wife.

But I want to explain how long that had been true for many years.

Let's move on.

Now I'll introduce how to form the negative in the past perfect tense.

Take a look at the board.

The first sentence says, ‘I had not eaten at the restaurant before I went yesterday.’

Again, we have the past perfect tense here and the past simple tense here.

This one is the action that happened earlier in the past

And this one over here is the action that happened later in the past.

However, because this is the negative, what I'm going to do is add a 'not' between

the ‘had’ and the past participle of the verb.

So I say, ‘I have not eaten’.

Or I can use the contraction

and say, ‘I hadn't eaten at the restaurant before I went yesterday.’

The next sentence is very similar.’

‘She had not been to the circus before she went last week.’

Here's the action that happened earlier in the past,

and here's the action that happened later in the past.

However, again, because it's negative,

I put a 'not' between ‘had’ and the past participle of the verb.

Also, I can use the contraction and say, ‘She hadn't been to the circus.’

The next sentence says,

‘The cat hadn't chased the bird for very long before it flew away.’

Remember, we can show duration,

or how long the first action was true.

by using 'for' and a duration.

Because this is the negative form,

again, I use 'had not' after the subject and before the past participle of the verb

In this case, the contraction ‘hadn't’ is already there for you.

‘We hadn't known each other for three months before we married.’

That's a pretty short time.

It shows the duration by saying ‘for’, How long?

‘three months’

Let's move on.

Now, let's take a look at questions using ‘had’ in the past perfect tense.

Take a look at the first sentence.

It says, ‘She had eaten lunch by noon.’

Now, to turn this into a question is quite easy.

All you have to do is change the order of the first two words.

So instead of ‘she had’, we say ‘Had she’.

‘Had she eaten lunch by noon?’

You can say, ‘Yes, she had.’

or ‘No, she hadn't.’

The next sentence says, ‘It had rained before they left.’

Again simply switched the order of the first two words.

Instead of ‘It had’, say ‘Had it’ to make a question.

‘Had it rained before they left?’

To reply you can say, ‘Yes, it had.’

or ‘No, it hadn't.’

Let's move on now.

I'll go into how to form ‘WH’ questions in the past perfect tense.

Let's take a look.

Here we see at the beginning of each question a 'WH' word.

‘where’, ‘who’, ‘what’, and ‘how’.

Let's take a look at the first question.

‘Where had he traveled before?’

You'll notice that after each ‘WH’ word, we have ‘had’.

And then the subject and then the past participle of the verb.

‘Where had he traveled before?’

The next question says, ‘Who had she talked to before?’

This is the same thing the ‘WH’ word

‘had she’ and then the past participle.

You'll notice here that we have the word ‘before’, but we didn't write a specific point in time.

If you see that it simply means before now.

The next question says, ‘What had he eaten before lunch?’

Again we follow the same formula, however, here it says ‘lunch for you'.

The last one says,

‘How long had she known him before she dated him?’

Again how long ‘had’ + ‘subject’ and then the past participle.

Let's take a look at how  to answer these questions.

‘Where had he traveled before?’

‘He had traveled to Europe.’

is one possible answer.

‘Who had she talked to before?’

Here I can say, ‘She had talked to her brother.’

‘What had he eaten before lunch?’

‘He had eaten sushi before lunch.’

And finally, ‘How long had she known him before she dated him?’

‘She had known him for three years.’

That is one possible answer.

Let's move on.

Now let's take a look at some practice exercises for the basic usage of the past perfect tense.

Take a look at the first sentence.

‘I blank for six hours before I had a break.’

The verb here is ‘work’.

Remember, we need to say ‘I had’.

No matter what the subject is, say ‘had’.

And then, you take the past participle of the verb.

In this case, we would say ‘worked’.

‘I had worked for six hours before I had a break.’

For the next sentence, I want you to try the negative form.

‘We blank TV before we listened to the radio.’

Remember, for the negative form, we say ‘had not’

or we use the contraction, ‘hadn't’.

‘We hadn’t’.

And then, we need the past participle.

‘We hadn't watched TV before we listened to the radio.’

Now find the mistake in the next sentence.

‘Reggie had it be to Mexico before he went to Peru.’

Well, we have the subject here and for the negative, ‘hadn't’ is correct.

However, we need the past participle of the verb ‘be’.

So the correct answer is,

‘Reggie hadn't been to Mexico before he went to Peru.’

And finally, ‘Sally and Jan or they had do their job.’

Hmm.

Remember, we need the past participle.

We don't say do.

We say ‘done’.

‘Sally and Jan had done their job before they watched TV.’

Let's move on.

In this checkup, we'll take a look at some practice exercises

for the past perfect tense that describes how long.

Let's take a look at the first sentence.

‘You blank at the park for three hours before you came home.’

Remember, we start with the subject and then ‘had’.

So I'm going to add that here,

then we need the past participle of the verb ‘be’.

And that is ‘been’.

‘You had been at the park for three hours before you came home.’

The next sentence says,

‘They blank for six hours before they took a break.’

Again, no matter what the subject, we have ‘had’ and then the past participle.

So the answer is,

‘They had studied for six hours before they took a break.’

Now, find the mistake in the next sentence.

It's a little bit longer so it might take you a while.

‘They had been known each other for ten years before they had their first fight.’

Can you find the mistake?

Well, we have the subject and ‘had’, but check this out.

There are two past participles here.

We need to get rid of one of them.

We can take out this verb and say, ‘They had known each other for ten years

before they had their first fight.’

The next sentence says, ‘I have played soccer for many years before I scored my first goal.’

This sentence doesn't look wrong at first.

But remember, in the past perfect tense, we need to say ‘had’.

‘I had played soccer for many years before I scored my first goal.’

Good job, everybody.

Let's move on.

Great job, everyone.

Now you have a better understanding of the past perfect tense.

I know it can be a little difficult but keep studying,

and keep practicing, and you will get better.

I know studying English is not easy but with time and effort,

I know you'll master it.

Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you in the next video.

Hi, everybody.

I'm Esther.

In this video, I will introduce the past perfect continuous tense.

It's a great tense that helps you express an ongoing action

in the past continuing up to another point in the past.

There's a lot to learn, so keep watching.

One usage of the past perfect continuous tense is to talk about an ongoing action in the

past that continued up to another point in the

past.

You can use ‘for’ and a duration to talk about

how long that action was in progress.

Here are some examples.

‘I had been waiting for the bus for two hours before it arrived.’

You'll notice that at the beginning.

It doesn't matter what the subject is, we follow with ‘had been’.

For example, ‘I had been’, ‘Chuck had been’,

And ‘Tom and Kim had been.’

And then we follow with the verb ‘-ing’.

‘waiting’.

‘I had been waiting.’

Now this is the ongoing action that happened first.

Again, four and two hours shows the duration.

The second part says, ‘it arrived’.

This verb is in the past simple tense.

Therefore, that is the second action.

It's the action that this first action happened until this action happened,

so again, ‘I had been waiting for the bus,’ happened

first.

And then, it happened until the bus arrived.

‘Chuck had been cooking,’ Again, that part's easy.

No matter what’s the subject, we say ‘had been’ and then verb ‘-ing’.

Again, I can show how long Chuck had been cooking by saying ‘for an hour’, showing

the duration.

And then, I finished by saying, ‘before he finished’.

He had been cooking up to this point in the past.

Finally, ‘Tom and Kim had been walking,’ This part should be familiar to you by now,

‘for an hour’ Again, that shows duration.

‘before they rested.’

So they had been walking for an hour before they took a break.

Before they rested.

Let's move on.

The past perfect continuous tense is also used to express cause and effect in the

past.

The verb that's in the past perfect continuous tense shows the cause,

why something happened.

We can use ‘because’ or ‘so’ to show the cause and effect.

Here, I'll explain.

‘Jason was tired because he had been jogging.’

The first part of the sentence is in the past tense.

‘Jason was tired,’ However, we see ‘why?’

Well, because, ‘he had been jogging’.

The second part of this sentence is in the past perfect continuous tense.

‘he had been’, remember no matter what the subject,

we follow with ‘had been’ and jogging – ‘verb -ing’.

‘he had been jogging’ This shows why Jason was tired.

The next sentence says, ‘The pavement’ or it ‘was wet because

it had been raining.’

Similar to the first sentence, ‘it had been raining’ shows the cause.

Why was the pavement wet?

‘The pavement was wet because it had been raining.’

In this sentence, we see a little difference.

‘The children had been playing’ Again, this is the past perfect continuous

tense.

‘had been playing’ The second part says, ‘the room was a mess’.

So here, instead of ‘because’ like the first two sentences,

I used ‘so’.

So the order has been changed but the meaning is the same.

This, ‘the children had been playing’ is why the room was a mess.

This is the cause and this is the effect.

Let's move on.

Now let's go into the negative form of the past perfect continuous tense.

Here are some examples.

‘I had not been working for a day before I quit.’

So no matter what the subject ‘I’, ‘you’, ‘she’, or ‘it’,

just like in the affirmative, we say ‘had’, but after the ‘had’, in the negative form,

we add ‘not’. ‘had not’

‘had not’ or you can use the contraction ‘hadn't’.

Which is a combination of ‘had’ and ‘not’ together.

‘I had not been working’ The rest of the sentence is the same.

‘been + verb -ing’ ‘I had not been working for a day before

I quit.’

The next sentence says, ‘You had not been cutting onions for long

before you cried.’

Again, the ‘not’ goes between ‘had’ and ‘been’.

‘She hadn't been studying for long when she fell asleep.’

Here, we have the contraction.

And finally, ‘It hadn't been snowing for long when it

stopped.’

Again, we have the contraction for ‘had not’ here.

You'll notice that in the first two sentences, I used ‘before’.

And in the last two, I used ‘when’.

Either one can be used to show when the first action stopped.

Let's move on.

Now let's go into how to form basic questions in the past perfect continuous tense.

Here is the first example.

‘He had been driving all day before he arrived.’

Now, to turn this into a question, all we have to do is change the order of the first

two words.

Instead of ‘He had’, now I can say, ‘Had he’, in order to form a question.

‘Had he been driving all day before he arrived?’

The next sentence says, ‘The dog had been barking because it was

scared.’

In this case, the subject is ‘The dog’.

And then we follow with ‘had’.

To turn this into a question, again, we switch the order.

‘Had the dog been barking because it was scared?’

You'll notice that in the question, the rest of the words stay in the same place.

Now, in the first question, we're asking how long an action happened,

or how long it was ongoing in the past.

And in this question, we ask about cause and effect.

Let's move on.

Now, I'll introduce how to form WH questions in the past perfect continuous tense.

Take a look at these examples.

You'll notice that they all start with a WH word.

Why, where, what, and who.

You might also have noticed that after we have ‘had’.

‘Why had’ ‘Where had’

‘What had’ and ‘Who had’

In the first question, after that comes the subject.

‘Why had you’ And then ‘been + verb -ing’

And that's the same pattern we follow for all of these sentences.

So ‘Why had you been studying so much?’

I can answer by saying, ‘I had been studying so much because I have

a test.’

‘Where had you been traveling before you came here?’

I can say, ‘I had been traveling through Asia.’

‘What had they been playing before they played soccer?’

I can answer, ‘They had been playing baseball.’

And finally, ‘Who had she been talking to before she

left home?’

I can answer, ‘She had been talking to her boyfriend.’

Let's move on.

Let's start a checkup for the past perfect continuous tense.

Take a look at the first sentence.

It says, ‘They __ for a long time before they went home.’

Try to fill in the blank with the verb ‘work’ in this tense.

Remember, no matter what the subject, we follow the subject with ‘had been’.

So we say, ‘They had been’.

What happens to the verb?

Remember, we add ‘-ing’.

So the sentence is, ‘They had been working for a long time before they went home.’

Now, take a look at the second sentence.

I want you to use the negative.

‘I __ TV for a year before I started again.’

Remember, the negative form for this tense starts with the subject

and then ‘had not been’.

Or I can use the contraction ‘hadn't’.

‘I hadn't been’ And then again, verb ‘-ing’.

‘I hadn't been watching TV for a year before I started again.’

Now, try to find the mistake in this next sentence.

‘Gina and I hadn't been do any work before we started.’

What's the error?

You'll notice that the verb does not have an ‘-ing’.

To make the sentence correct, we must say, ‘Gina and I hadn't been doing

any work before we started.’

Now, find the mistake here.

‘He had be watching YouTube because he had some free time.’

‘He had’, that's correct, but we need to change ‘be’ to been’.

And ‘watching’ is correct.

So, ‘He had been watching YouTube because he had some free time.’

Let's move on.

Now, let's move on to another checkup of the past perfect continuous tense.

Take a look at the first example.

It says, ‘The company __ employees because they worked hard.’

Use the verb ‘promote’ in the past perfect continuous tense.

Remember, no matter what the subject, we follow with ‘had been’.

So we say, ‘The company had been’ and then verb ‘-ing’, so ‘promoting’.

‘The company had been promoting employees because they worked hard.’

The next example says, ‘I __ your emails for a while because they went to the spam

folder.’

Here, try to use the negative form with the verb ‘get’.

Remember, in the negative form, we say ‘had not been getting’

Or the contraction ‘hadn't been getting’.

‘I hadn't been getting your emails for a while because they went to the spam folder.’

Now look for the mistake in the next sentence.

‘I had been work a lot because I needed the money.’

What's the mistake?

Remember, we need to add ‘-ing’ to the verb.

‘I had been working a lot because I needed the money.’

The last sentence says, ‘He has been smoking because he was stressed.’

Can you find the mistake?

Remember, we're practicing the past perfect continuous.

In this case, we need ‘had’ after the subject, not ‘has’.

Great job, everyone.

Let's move on.

Thank you so much for watching this  grammar course on the past tense. 

Now, if you haven’t had a chance to check  out my grammar course on the present tense  

or the future tense, make sure you do that now. Thank you again for watching and I will see you  

next time. Bye.