P's

P's

Introduction

Welcome to 'P's' the website made specially for you.

We are here to help you improve your English. We will be focussing on the past Tenses. beneath every header you will find information and exercises regarding that form.

This website is made for HAVO 2 to learn the past tenses, and for HAVO 3 to refresh the memory of last years information.

After reading every page and making all the exercises the students will know the difference between the past forms.

Past Simple

Form: verb + ed or it's irregular (e.g. eat > ate).

The simple past tense, is used to talk about a completed action in a time before now. The simple past is the basic form of past tense in English. The time of the action can be in the recent past or the distant past and action duration is not important.

EXAMPLES
  • John Cabot sailed to America in 1498.
  • My father died last year.
  • He lived in Fiji in 1976.
  • We crossed the Channel yesterday.

You always use the simple past when you say when something happened, so it is associated with certain past time expressions

  • frequency: often, sometimes, always
    I sometimes walked home at lunchtime.
    I often brought my lunch to school.
  • a definite point in time: last week, when I was a child, yesterday, six weeks ago
    We saw a good film last week.
    Yesterday, I arrived in Geneva.
    She finished her work atseven o'clock
    I went to the theatre last night
  • an indefinite point in time: the other day, ages ago, a long time ago People lived in caves a long time ago.
  • She played the piano when she was a child.

 

 

 

Now let's test your knowledge shall we?

passive pres simple/past simple/pres perf

Past Perfect Simple

Form: had + past participal.

These two tenses are both used to talk about things that happened in the past. However we use past perfect to talk about something that happened before another action in the past, which is usually expressed by the past simple.

For example:

"I had already eaten my dinner when he called."
In other words, First I ate my dinner, then he called.
The past perfect is often used with already, yet, just and even.

 

 

Now let's test your knowledge shall we?

Past simple/past perfect

Past Continuous

Form: was/were + -ing form.

Past continuous

Je gebruikt de past continuous om aan te geven dat iemand iets in het verleden aan het doen was of dat iets op een bepaald moment in het verleden aan de gang was.
Je gebruikt altijd de verleden tijd van het werkwoord 'to be': was of were. 
En je maakt van werkwoord de vorm op '-ing'.

Voorbeelden:

  • I was reading a book.
    Ik was een boek aan het lezen.
     
  • Lisa was dancing with Jake.
    Lisa was met Jake aan het dansen.

  • They were cleaning the car.
    Zij waren de auto aan het schoonmaken.

Ook in vraagzinnen en ontkennende zinnen kun je de past continuous gebruiken:

  Vraagzin Ontkenning
I was working. Was I working? I wasn't working.
You were working. Were you working? You weren't working.
He was working. Was he working? He wasn't working.
We were working. Were we working? We weren't working.
They were working. Were they working? They weren't working.

 

 

Now let's test your knowledge shall we?

past simple/past continuous 4

Past Perfect Continuous

Form:     had + been  + verb  + -ing

 

     I had been waiting there for two hours before she finally arrived.

     She had only been studying English for two years before she got

     the job.

     

     note :

*  When you are using a verb tense with more than one part

    such as Past Perfect Continuous (had been studying),

    adverbs often come between the first part and the    

    second part : had only been studying

 

 

Past perfect continuous

De past perfect continuous gebruik je als je praat over iets dat duurde tot het moment in het verleden waar je het over hebt. Je maakt de past perfect continuous met het hulpwerkwoord 'had' gevolgd door 'been' + een werkwoord in de '-ing'vorm.

Voorbeelden:

  • When they finally arrived, I had been waiting one hour.
    Toen ze eindelijk arriveerden, had ik een uur lang gewacht.

  • John had been taking quite a few driving lessons, but he gave up.
    John heeft best een aardig aantal autorijlessen gehad, maar hij is gestopt.

Are you up for the test?!

Now let's test your knowledge shall we?