Tenses - Poster

Usage

Time Expressions

Time Expressions

Usage

Past Continuous

Past Perfect Continuous

Examples

Examples

Forms

Forms

Usage

Time Expressions

Usage

Time Expressions

Past Simple

Past Perfect Simple

Examples

Forms

Examples

Forms

Affirmative - Subject + verb (II)

Negative - Subject + didn't + verb (r)

Question - Did + subject + verb (r)

At that time,While, When, As, During

Affirmative - Subject + was/were + verb + -ing

Negative - Subject + was/were + not + verb + -ing

Question - Was/Were + subject + verb + -ing

An action in the past that gets interrupted

Ongoing actions at a specified time

Emphasizing how long a past action took

Affirmative - Subject + had + been + v + -ing

Negative - Subject + had + not + been + v + -ing

Question - Had + subject + been + v + -ing

I was reading this book in third grade

You weren't listening to music, when I called you

Was he eating noodles, during the dinner?

I had bought glasses, before I started wearing them

I hadn't eaten in restaurant, before today

Had you studied?

Affirmative - Subject + had + verb (III)

Negative - Subject + had + not + verb (III)

Question - Had + subject + verb (III)

To refer to an ongoing action that ended before another action/event in the past.

I sent him a message

He didn't watch TV yesterday

Did you do your homework?

For,Since, All (morning/afternoon/evening/night/day/week/month/year), Before, When, By the time

To talk about time up to a certain point in the past

Used to refer to actions that were completed in a time period before the present time.

He had been driving all night.

He had not been driving all night.

Had he been driving all night?

Yesterday,A week (month, year), Ago, Last (month, year, weekend, Monday) Night, The day before yesterday, Two days (months, years) ago

By,By the time When, Just, Already, Yet, Before / after