Cambridge Grammar of English Hardback with cd-rom a comprehensive Guide

INTRODUCTION

346

Past time is seen as time before the moment of speaking or writing, or as ‘time

around a point before the moment of speaking’.

References to past time are most typically indicated in the verb phrase through

the simple and progressive forms of the past tense.

Forms of the past tense

form

structure

examples

past simple

past tense forms of lexical verbs 

I/you/he/she/it/one/we/they 

worked

or of auxiliary do

eight hours a day.

We 

didn’t work eight hours a day.

Did he work eight hours a day?

past progressive

past tense forms of be + lexical 

I he/she/it 

was working when it happened.

verb in -ing form

We/you/they 

were working when it 

happened.

The past tense is the most common way of referring to past time and in this chapter

(346–360) we deal with the past simple and past progressive forms. Past tense

forms may also occasionally refer to present time, often for reasons of politeness or

indirectness.

The perfect forms (present perfect and past perfect, simple and progressive)

refer to events in time from a point in the past up to the moment of

speaking/writing (present perfect), or events in time from one point in the past up

to another, later, point in the past (past perfect).