Past Tenses in British English
In English, we use different tenses to show the time when an action happened.
There are 12 tenses altogether.
In this lesson, you’ll learn the past simple and past continuous tenses and practise using them.
What are the past simple and past continuous tenses?
Tenses are used to show a time when an action happened.
Past Simple
- A completed action in the past
- Action already happened
- Regular and irregular verbs (e.g. walked/ate)
Past Continuous
- An action in the past continuing over a period of time
- Structure – was/were + verb-ing
Examples
He drove the car to work.
I was walking in the snow.
They watched a film together last weekend.
Remember: past simple has 2 types of verbs; regular and irregular
Practise
Fill in the missing forms of the verbs.
Common mistakes learners make
- Using the past continuous for completed actions
- Forgetting was/were in past continuous tense
- Using the same tense for 2 actions in the same sentence
Common mistakes learners make
- Using the past continuous for completed actions
- Forgetting was/were in past continuous tense
- Using the same tense for 2 actions in the same sentence
Watch: Tenses explained by a British tutor
In this lesson, Claire will explain the 6 different simple and continuous tenses with more examples.
