Collins Cobuild

Unit 59
The past tenses
Main points
There  are  four  past  tenses  –  past  simple  (‘I  walked’),  past
continuous (‘I was walking’), past perfect (‘I had walked’), and past
perfect continuous (‘I had been walking’).
All the past tenses are used to refer to past time.
The past tenses are often used as polite forms.
The  past  tenses  have  special  meanings  in  conditional  clauses  and
when referring to imaginary situations.
1
There are four tenses which begin with a verb in the past tense. They
are the past simple, the past continuous, the past perfect, and the past
perfect continuous. These are the past tenses. They are used to refer to
past  time,  and  also  to  refer  to  imaginary  situations,  and  to  express
politeness.
2
 The  past  simple  and  the  past  continuous  are  used  with  reference  to
past time. You use the past simple for events which happened in the
past.
I woke up early and got out of bed.
I caught my dress on the fence.
If you are talking about the general past, or about regular or habitual
actions in the past, you also use the past simple.

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She lived just outside London.
We often saw his dog sitting outside his house.
If you are talking about something which continued to happen before
and after a particular time in the past, you use the past continuous.
They were sitting in the kitchen, when they heard the explosion.
Jack arrived while the children were having their bath.
The past continuous is often used to refer to a temporary situation.
He was working at home at the time.
Bill was using my office until I came back from America.
3
You use the past perfect and past perfect continuous tenses when you
are  talking  about  the  past  and  you  are  concerned  with  something
which happened at an earlier time, or which had started at an earlier
time but was still continuing.
I had heard it was a good film so we decided to go and see it.
It was getting late. I had been waiting there since two o’clock.
4
You sometimes use a past tense rather than a present tense when you
want  to  be  more  polite.  For  example,  in  the  following  pairs  of
sentences, the second one is more polite.
Do you want to see me now?
Did you want to see me now?
I wonder if you can help me. I
was wondering if you could help me.
5
The past tenses have special meanings in conditional clauses and when
referring to hypothetical and imaginary situations, for example after ‘I
wish’ or ‘What if…?’. You use the past simple and past continuous for
something that you think is unlikely to happen.
If they saw the mess, they would be extremely angry.

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We would certainly tell you if we were selling the house.
What if you asked her for the money instead?
You  use  the  past  perfect  and  past  perfect  continuous  when  you  are
talking about something which could have happened in the past, but
which did not actually happen.
If I had known that you were coming, I would have told Jim.
They wouldn’t have gone to bed if they had been expecting you to
arrive.

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