Talking about the past: English past tenses
To tell a story in English you need more than one past tense: one for the events, one for the background, and one for what had already happened before.
These lessons go from the past of be (was and were) to narrative tenses and past habits, the grammar of telling someone what happened.
The essentials
- The past simple for completed events, one after another: I got up, had a coffee and left.
- The past continuous for the background, an action in progress: It was raining when I left.
- The past perfect for something earlier than the story's main events: When I arrived, the film had started.
- Used to and would for past habits: We used to live by the sea. Every summer we would swim before breakfast.
- Used to describes states too (I used to have long hair); would only describes repeated actions.
Every lesson on this topic
Each lesson has a full explanation, examples, common mistakes and practice questions.
A1 (English at A1)
- Where were you yesterday? Was and were: The past of be: was and were, in sentences, negatives and questions
A2 (English at A2)
- What did you do? The past simple: Regular and irregular past forms, and questions and negatives with did
- What were you doing? The past continuous: Actions in progress at a moment in the past, and an action that interrupts them
B1 (English at B1)
- Telling a story: narrative tenses: Past simple for events, past continuous for the background, past perfect for what happened earlier
- used to and would: how things were: Past habits and states with used to and would, and the difference from be used to and get used to
Other topics
- Present perfect or past simple?
- English conditionals: first, second, third and mixed
- English modal verbs: must, have to, should and more
- Talking about the future in English
- The passive in English
- Reported speech and reporting verbs
- Relative clauses: who, which, that, whose
- Linking words: although, despite, however, whereas
- -ing or to? Verb patterns in English
- Formal, professional and academic English
- Emphasis in English: inversion and cleft sentences