Page 182 - Basic English Usage

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Regularly every summer, Janet fell in love.

°
©
e
2
-~ FUTURE
©
-©
PAST
1959 1960 1961 1963 1964 NOW
We use the simple past in ‘narrative’ — when we tell stories, and when
we tell people about past events.
Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess who lived with her
father. One day the king decided ...
! saw John this morning. He told me ...
(NOT +have-seenJohrhis ...)
morning
hastotdme
He
A simple rule: use the simple past tense if you do not have a good
reason for using one of the other past or perfect tenses.
42 past time: past progressive
Forms

Affirmative Question Negative

| was working was | working? | was not working
you were working, were you working? you were not working,

etc
etc
etc
Meaning
We use the past progressive to say that something was going on around
a particular past time.
What were you doing at eight o'clock yesterday evening?
2299229779 |
-e
PAST = FUTURE
Ow

We often use the past progressive together with a simple past tense.
The past progressive refers to a longer ‘background’ action or situation;
the simple past refers to a shorter action or situation that happened in
the middle, or interrupted it.