[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Welcome back to one more English lesson. I am Ana. In the last lesson, we looked at all the four present tenses in English. In this lesson, we will look at all the four past tenses. Take a look at these sentences on your screen. I eat breakfast. Now this sentence is in simple present tense. Right? Now let's shift to the past. I ate breakfast. I was eating breakfast. I had eaten breakfast. I had been eating breakfast. Now all these sentences, they talk about the past, but they are all a little different. If you ever felt confused about past tenses in English, this English lesson is just for you. Now, past tenses are the most confusing among all the three tenses. And most of the mistakes happen while using past tenses. Today I'll explain all the four past tenses in the easiest way possible with more examples, daily life situations and also a quick quiz at the end to test your understanding. So come on, let's get started. Let's begin with simple past tense. We use the simple past tense to talk about actions that happened and finished in the past. They got no relevance to the present at all. Now the most important thing the time of the action is either mentioned or it's understood. The structure looks something like this. We use the subject plus the past form of the verb. Here are some examples. I watched a movie last night. Take a look at the timeline. I watched a movie last night. The action is over. It's finished. And I'm talking about it now in the present. So last night is over. It means the action is completed and specific time is mentioned. So last night is specific time. Right? Similarly, she visited her grandmother yesterday. They played cricket on Sunday. We didn't go to the mall. Did you eat lunch? Now in the last two sentences, even if you don't say yesterday or in the afternoon, it's understood. It's not necessary to write. So with simple past tense, time expressions are important. Words like yesterday, Sunday, last week, 2 days ago, in 2021, these are all time expressions. Now take a look at this sentence. Did you went to work yesterday? Is this sentence correct or is it incorrect? Well, it's incorrect. Don't use the past form when you use did. So, after did, we do not use the past verb. Did is always followed by a present verb. So, the right sentence is did you go to work yesterday? So, in short, if something started and ended in the past, it's done. We use simple past tense. I hope that was pretty easy to understand. Now let's understand how to use the past continuous tense. The past continuous tense is used to show that an action wasn't progress at a specific time in the past. The action has ended in the past. But this tense is specifically used to show that the action started in the past, continued for some time and ended the past itself. I hope you got it. Here's the structure. We use the subject plus was or were plus the verb in the ing form. Now, important thing to note, we use was with subjects like I, he, she, or it. And we use were with subjects like you, we, or they, right? So, if you're going to use was or were, it completely depends on the subject. For example, I was watching TV at 8:00 p.m. last night. Now, take a look at the timeline. I started watching TV at 8:00 p.m. and maybe I watched it until 1000 p.m. and then went to sleep. So when we say was watching TV, it shows that the action of watching TV continued between 8:00 p.m. to 1000 p.m. In short, the action started at 8:00 p.m. and ended at 10 p.m. So what are we trying to show here? You're trying to show that the action continued for some time in the past. Here are some more examples. She was cooking when I called her. They were playing football in the rain. We weren't sleeping when the phone rang. What were you doing at 9:00? Now, the easiest way to remember this tense is think of this tense as a camera capturing something that was happening, not finished, at a moment in the past. I hope that was easy to understand. Now, let's move on to something really tricky and this really confuses many people. the past perfect tense. Now, people often get confused with this tense, but don't worry, it's actually very logical. In the previous two tenses, the simple past and the past continuous, we talked about only one action. But what if you want to talk about two actions in the past? That's when we use the past perfect tense. The past perfect tense is used when you talk about two actions in the past and you want to know which action happened first and which happened second. That's the main use of the past perfect tense. Now this is the most simple explanation for past perfect tense. That's all. Just remember two actions in the past you have to use the past perfect tense. Now the structure looks something like this. We use the subject plus had plus the past participle which means the verb in the third form. Take a look at this example. I had finished lunch before they arrived. Now look at the timeline. There are two actions in the past. Finished lunch and the guest arrived. So which action happened first? Finished lunch. And the second action is the guest arrived. So remember when we talk about an action that happened further in the past, we use had plus the past participle. In this case had finished. And for the action that is nearest to the present time, we use simple past. In this case, arrived. Just remember this simple rule and you will never get confused where to use had in past perfect tense. Here are some more examples. She had already left when I got there. They had never seen snow before their trip to Kashmir. We hadn't studied so we failed the test. Now you tell me in the comments in all these three sentences which action happened first and which happened later. In short, if you're talking about two things in the past, one happened before the other, use the past perfect tense for the first action. With that, now let's move on to the last tense. The past perfect continuous tense. Now, this tense also talks about two past actions, similar to the past perfect tense. We use this tense to talk about two completed actions in the past. But there's a little twist. Out of the two actions, if we want to show that one action continued for some time and then ended, that's when we use the past perfect continuous tense. This tense is specifically used to show that an action started in the past, continued for some time and ended before another past action or a specific time in the past. Take a look at this structure. We use the subject plus we use had been plus the verb in the ing form. For example, I had been working for 5 hours before I took a break. Take a look at the timeline. I started working at 9:00 a.m. I worked until 2 p.m. So, the action of me working continued for 5 hours. And then the second action, I took a break. Here's one thing important to note. We use time expression for the continued action to show the duration of the action. Here are some more examples. She had been crying all night before we reached. They had been waiting for the train for over an hour. He had not been sleeping well for a few days. In short, this tense is like telling a story. You know, something had been going on in the background for some time before something else happened. I hope that was pretty easy to understand. All right, now let's do a quick recap. We use simple past for a completed action. For example, I watched a movie. We use the past continuous tense to talk about an action in progress at a past moment. For example, I was watching a movie. We use the past perfect tense to talk about two past actions. I had watched the movie before it was released online. We use the past perfect continuous tense to talk about duration of an action before another past action. I had been watching the movie for 2 hours before I fell asleep. I hope you got a better understanding of how to use all the past tenses. Now, come on, let's test your understanding. It's quiz time. There are three sentences with blanks on your screen. And what you have to do is choose the right option. You can pause the video here, take a screenshot, and write your answers in the comments. I will try and correct them. All right, that's all for today. If you unders this lesson and feel more confident about using the past tenses, give this video a like, hit the subscribe button, and don't forget to share it with someone who's learning English just like you. In the next lesson, I'm going to cover all the future tenses in the same manner. Until then, keep learning, keep practicing English. Bye for now.