PAST SIMPLE - PRESENT PERFECT SIMPLE - PAST PERFECT

PAST SIMPLE

Finished actions, states or habits in the past. 1: We use it with finished actions, states or habits in the past when we have a finished time word (yesterday, last week, at 2 o'clock, in 2003). I went to the cinema yesterday. We spent a lot of time in Japan in 2007.

USES

TIME EXPRESSIONS

PRESENT PERFECT SIMPLE

STRUCTURE

USES

TIME EXPRESSIONS

PASTPERFECT

We can use the past perfect to show the order of two past events. The past perfect shows the earlier action and the past simple shows the later action. When the police arrived, the thief had escaped.We can also use before + past perfect to show that an action was not done or was incomplete when the past simple action happened.They left before I'd spoken to them.

TIME EXPRESSIONS

• by the time
• as soon as
• until
• after
• before
• yet