Past Simple And Past Continuous Past Perfect

Past simple and past continuous past perfect

G4.1
Past simple and past continuous

We use the past simple for:
a) A single completed action in the past: In 2001 she went to Miami.
b) A repeated action or habit in the past: He always said what size sofa he wanted.
c) A state: he wanted everything is in the hotel room covered in clear plastic.

We use the past continuous for:a) A longer action in the past: In 1998 they were touring in Europe and the USA for most of the year.
b) Actions that were in progress when other (shorter) action happened: While they were having their end-of-tour party, they threw the pies at each other.
c) Look at this sentence and the diagram: While he was staying in new York, he asked for a kitchen in his hotel suite.Was staying

Past asked Future
Moved into moved out NOW
Hotel of hotel



Was staying=longer action (Past Continuous); asked= shorter action (Past Simple). Staying in the hotelstarted first and continued after he asked for the new kitchen.
Tips! We can also use the past continuous when the longer action is interrupted: While we were having a picnic, it started to rain (so we stopped having the picnic).
We can also use the past continuous to talk about an activity in progress at a point of a time in the past: at four o´clock I was driving home.
We can use when or whilewith the past continuous: He called me when/while I was waiting for the train. We don’t usually use while with the past simple: while he called me, I was waiting for a train.
Past simple
We make the past simple positive of regular verbs by adding –ed or –d to the infinitive: work →worked, live→ lived etc. There are no rules for irregular verbs. There is an irregular verb list on p159.
I stayed athome because I didn´t feel well.
We make the past simple negative with: subject + didn´t +infinitive.
He didn´t go to work yesterday.
We make past simple questions with:
(question words)+ did + subject + infinitive.
What time did he go out?
Past continuous
We make the past continuous positive and negative with:
Subject + was/were + (not) + verb + ing.
I /he/she/it was/wasn´t working when youcalled.
We make past continuous questions with:
(Question word) + was/were + subject + verb +ing.
What were you/we/they doing when he called?

G4.1
We can use used to or the past simple to talk about repeated actions or habits in the past: they used to make own furniture. He always said what size sofa we wanted.
We can´t use used to to talk about one action in the past.
They once asked for twelvefruit pies. Not they once used to ask for twelve fruit pies.

TIP! We can only used to to talk about past. When we want to talk about habits or repeated actions in the present, we use usually + present simple: I used to work at the weekend (but I don´t work at the weekend now). I usually work at the weekend (I work at the weekend now).

POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE
We make positive and negativesentences with used to with:
Subject + used to/didn´t used to + infinitive.
He used to be famous.
They didn´t use to go on tour very often.

TIP! Used to Is the same for all subjects:
I/ you/he/she/we/they used to live in Wales

QUESTIONS
(Question word) + did + subject + use to + infinitive.
Where did you use to live when you were young?
Did she use to go out a lot?

TIPS! The short answer to yes/noquestions with used to are:
Yes, I did. /No, I didn´t; yes, he did. /no, he didn´t, etc.
In the negative we can use didn´t use to or never used to:
I never used to go to gigs when I was young.

Past perfect

When there is more than one action in the past, we often use the past perfect for the action that happened first.

Second action (past simple) | First action (past perfect) |
I decided...