Past tenses in English
17 concepts in English Grammar, in level order. Open one to read how it works and try practice items.
Beginner
- Past simple — irregular verbs get, go, have, do Four everyday verbs that do not take -ed.
- Past simple — regular and irregular together Telling a short story with both kinds of verb.
- Past simple — regular verbs The -ed ending, and did not for negatives.
- Past simple of be — was and were Talking about where people and things were.
Elementary
- Past simple — irregular verbs The common verbs that do not take -ed.
- Present perfect or past simple? Experience against a finished time.
Pre-Intermediate
- Past continuous — setting the scene in the past Using was or were plus the -ing form to describe what was already happening.
- Past continuous or past simple? Using while and when to show a longer background action interrupted by a shorter one.
- Past perfect — the earlier of two past actions Using had plus the past participle to show which action happened first.
- Past simple — questions and negatives with did Forming past questions and negatives with did and didn't followed by the infinitive.
- used to — questions and negatives Forming did … use to …? and didn't use to.
- used to for past habits and states Describing something that was regularly true in the past but is not true now.
Intermediate
- Past tenses — simple, continuous, and perfect together Ordering events inside a narrative.
Intermediate Plus
- Past simple, past continuous, or used to? Three ways of talking about the past, and which fits.
Upper-Intermediate
- Narrative tenses, including past perfect continuous Layering a story across four past forms.
- used to, be used to, and get used to A past habit, a present familiarity, and the process between.
Advanced
- The past — habitual events and specific incidents would and used to against the past simple.