Questions tagged [past-tense]
This tag is for questions related to usage of the past tense in English.
1,056
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"that" + -ed vs. -ing in past tense [closed]
(a) He grit his teeth, pushing with full force through the barrage of winds that slammed against him and the structure both.
vs.
(b) He grit his teeth, pushing with full force through the barrage of ...
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Why is it right to use the Past Perfect tense, not the Past Perfect Continuous in this sentence? [migrated]
I have stumbled across the following sentence in a book:
I hadn't read a fashion magazine for ages.
According to the rule, we use the Past perfect continuous when we want to emphasize how long the ...
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1
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Until it stops or stopped? Reported speech question
"I told him to wait until the rain stops" or "i told him to wait until the rain stopped"
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Using "I wish" to express regret or desire [migrated]
I would like to know which of the following sentences can be considered similar in meaning to this one :
**
I regret that teenangers are treated in a bad way
**
I wish teenagers WERE NOT treated in ...
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1
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Why is past simple being used in these sentences instead of past perfect? [duplicate]
I'm doing an Anki Deck that consists of "Advanced English Grammar" and I don't understand why in examples below I can't use the form I'm suggesting, but instead have to use the form that is ...
2
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1
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Why are write/wrote, ride/rode but strike/struck?
Why do write and ride change to o in the simple past (wrote/rode) but strike changes to u (struck)?
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How do I use "would" when talking about the past in the context of storytelling?
I'm currently translating a book from my mother tongue, Portuguese, to English.
When translating certain sentences about the past, which describe recurrence, I repeatedly resort to would in situations ...
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3
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Why does the verb "was" indicate the fact that no longer exists?
I often see on the Internet one sentence,
He was rich. (He is not rich at present)
Why does the sentence have such an implication? Is it customary only for this sentence to express that meaning? ...
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35
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Past perfect continuous
I'm confused about the past perfect continuous sentence. One YouTuber who is an English teacher is explaining that there is a slight difference between the following two sentences, which makes me ...
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"Destroyed" vs "Destroied" [closed]
I recently observed that a non native speaker of english use the word "destroied" instead of "destroyed". It made me wonder why it is not "destroied". For "cry" ...
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Should I use past tense or present tense for facts in a story that I'm telling in past tense? [duplicate]
I learned simple present tense is used for universal truths or facts. If I'm telling the story in past tense, and I have to say a fact, should I use simple present tense?
Example:
They ran from the ...
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1
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54
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How many past perfect tense instances can be used in one sentence?
There's a sentence in which I have to express that one activity took place more recently than the other three. It's a classic case when past perfect should be used, but how does it look in terms of ...
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I would like to know which option is the right one: Why did... or Why has...? [closed]
Why did the dog make so much noise this night?
Why has the dog made so much noise this night?
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How would you phrase a question to a person that regressed spacetimewise? [closed]
This is quite confusing.
Let's say, there's this person who came back in time to their original state in that particular moment. So, they know exactly how things play out in their timeline point.
How ...
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Do you use the past tense when talking about hypothetical situations?
Do you use the past tense when using the subjunctive mood to talk about hypothetical situations?
So if I were to write the following sentences, which wordings should I choose?
"If the car were to ...
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Why is "You survived" past simple? [closed]
Great, Tom! You survived this jump!
Why do we use past simple and not the present perfect there? We can see the result of surviving in the present, but still use past tense.
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What is finished the verb or the object?
Is it definitely wrong to say?
A: What did you do yesterday?
B: I woke up, had a shower, wrote a book and then went to work. (I didn't write the whole book) 1:03 --- 1:10 a teacher from YouTube, ...
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Unsure about the usage of Past Perfect Continuous in a specific sentence
Is it correct to use the Past Perfect Continuous form I had never been considering
in the sentence
Before I met you, I had never been considering visiting Italy
?
According to Grammarly,
The past ...
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37
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I had a girlfriend. She (was/is) an american. Which one is correct and doesn't sound odd? [duplicate]
Which one doesn't sound odd and is correct?
"I had a girlfriend. She was an american."
Or
"I had a girlfriend. She is an american."
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Is it "The only thing my father taught me (was/is) how to respect women? [duplicate]
Which one should be used? Was or is? Which is more likely to sound odd?
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"The only thing they forgot to teach us is/was how to be a student." Which is right? "Is" or "was"?
Which sounds correct?
The only thing they forgot to teach is how to be a student.
Or
The only thing they forgot to teach was how to be a student.
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"I mean" in past tense narration is not "I meant" but is it the same for other similar construction? [closed]
My question is quite simple:
I have seen a lot of construction that start with "I mean," and here are a few examples:
I mean, you don't have to go to the dance.
I mean, it wasn't like you ...
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Using past tense for possible event in the future?
Can anyone help me with this? Here is a sentence:
I wanted to check and see if there was anything you need before I went on my maternity leave.
It's from The Office. And she asks the question before ...
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My question is about clauses placement in past tense
In simple past, we tell the chronological order of events in which they have occured in clauses and in past perfect we tell which event or action has happened before in those two actions. So,I have 2 ...
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simple past or present perfect issue
I would like to ask the reason of using present perfect tense instead of past tense in the italic words in the sentence below:
She has gotten older since we last met her. She also seems to have ...
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Present Perfect in the past time context
I have come across this paragraph in an English textbook:
Does this ring a bell? I'm sure it does. We've all experienced annoying tricks when we were young – the brother who stole your toys and then ...
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85
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“Had started” or “Started”?
As the bath oil facility is where the fire had started, its proximity to the island fruit trees means the fires spread onto the orchard farm.
I didn’t use “has started” because it’s already done. I’m ...
user440675
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the entire film/book
If I say:
"I read the book." or "I watched the film."
Does it mean that I read the entire book or that I watched the entire film?
If it does, how should I say to emphasise that I ...
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1
answer
81
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Should in the past [closed]
If I say "I should have done it." it means that I didn't do it.
Imagine: there was something that needed to be done. And I did it. How do I say "should" about REAL past?
I should ...
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1
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49
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We didn't know what to do, so we did nothing/ were doing nothing [closed]
I came across this sentence in one of my workbooks:
We were in a difficult position. We didn't know what to do, so we did nothing / were doing nothing.
The key suggests that this should make use of ...
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2
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117
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Missing conditionals
When we talk about Unreal Past using The Third Conditional we know what really happened.
Example:
"If I hadn't had a lot of money, I wouldn't have gone with her that summer and we wouldn't be ...
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2
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Reported speech with an event before another in the past [duplicate]
He said that before people built roads, they travelled on the river.
The original statement before being reported, as I understand it, should be:
Before people built roads, they travelled on the ...
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Two different verb tenses that involve “must have.”
Mom must have noticed me tense up as she hugs me tighter and redoubles her soothing.
Mom must have noticed me tense up as she hugged me tighter and redoubled her shooting.
Are both correct? ...
user440675
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3
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Present perfect question and past simple question
Look at these two questions:
Has your brother graduated from college?
Did your brother graduate from college?
Now, both of these questions seem fine to me, but I obviously know they are a little ...
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"Would rather" in narrative past
Let's say that we have a sentence like:
He would rather the door didn't open.
Which means that he has a preference that the door wouldn't open. How can we express it in the past? - That he preferred ...
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'They told me that I will/would not be employed from Monday.' Which is correct?
Consider the case where I am talking (about my being dismissed) on the previous Thursday. My work will stop at a time still in the future and it appears that 'will' can be used. But by a rule I have ...
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past perfect in a direct quoted sentence [closed]
Quote:
We got off, paid our fare, and the trap rattled back on its way to Leatherhead.
“I thought it as well,” said Holmes as we climbed the stile, “that this fellow should think we had come here as ...
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Events at the different times in one sentence
The apple was green two months ago, and it was red one month ago, and now it is brown.
Is “the apple was green and red” a correct expression even though it wasn’t green and red at the same time, but ...
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Which tense should follow “I've just heard” and why? [duplicate]
There is a sentence
"I've just heard that your dog died/has died".
What tense should be used and why? Past Simple or Present Perfect?
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Why did you ask me if they have any allergies?
In this sentence, the person is referring to a question that was asked in the past but a condition that is current. Can the past and present tense be used in this case or should it be "Why did ...
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Past continuous or simple past tense
I was having a shower when the telephone rang. (Past Continuous for interrupted action)
I was in the shower when the telephone rang.
Why is Past Simple used in the second sentence?)
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Why "I already said" is correct? I am confused with using past perfect and already
I have to improve my English, and I live in the USA.
I am confused with using past perfect and past simple after "already".
Is past simple correct after "already"?
I know, some ...
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Using more than one past perfect tense with time clauses and "last time I..."
I know I can express things in many different ways, and that maybe I could find alternative ways to form the sentences below, but I'm just trying to understand the use of the past perfect in certain ...
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Use of past tense or present tense with "to (not) understand"
I'm struggling to see which of the following sentences are grammatically correct ?
She just understood what you haven't understood yet.
She has just understood what you did not understand yet.
She ...
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How to refine ambiguous tense reference?
Caught offguard, Gibbet retreated to the safety of the wall, fervently hoping that the darkness was sufficient to hide him from her gaze.
Reading this sentence, it feels ambiguous (to me) whether it ...
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There is this sentence in the book "Fight Club" and I don't quite understand the verbs that are used, can you help me?
I'm reading a book called Fight Club and there is this sentence that got me confused:
Marla had started going to support groups after she found the first lump.
Now, past perfect is used in this ...
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Past Continuous in reported speech
Let's imagine someone has told me:
Last month while we were traveling in Cyprus, my mother was packing her bags for her first ever foreign trip.
I was wondering whether I could paraphrase it, and ...
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1
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Past simple or past continuous for process in the past?
Let's say that I have a computer program that had been doing one thing, but later that program was changed. Which statement would be more correct?
It was sorting by errors, but now it's sorting by ...
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Reported/Indirect Speech and Past Simple with when. Can they get confused with each other?
Going straight to the point, let's say that I have a sentence like
He asked when the train arrived.
How can I tell whether this is a Past Simple (As soon as the train arrived he asked) or Reported ...
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Subjunctive mood and bare infinitive in past
In present tense I would say:
"It is imperative that everyone stay home."
How would that sentence be in past tense?
For example:
"In 2020, it was imperative that everyone stay home.&...
