Types of Past Tense

Verbs and Tense

You can't run through a campground, you can only ran. Because it's past tents.

You might have heard this groaner of a joke before or seen it online in a meme, but what does it mean? It actually does a good job introducing the relationship between verbs (action words) and tense, the grammatical category describing when the action is taking place. In our joke, 'run' is the verb because it is an action, but it has been changed to 'ran' to put it in past tense, the tense that describes actions that happen in the past.

But, lame puns aside, this joke isn't completely accurate, because while you can't 'run' in the past tense, 'ran' is not the only thing you can do. You could also 'had run,' 'were running' or 'used to run,' as well as a few other possibilities. That's because past tense is divided into several types that more specifically describe the action, its time in the past, and its relationship to the present and even the future.

Common Types of Past Tense

There are several common types of past tense that we use every day. You've probably used them recently, even if you didn't know the fancy grammatical names for them. So, let's find out what those fancy names are.

Simple Past

First, let's look at simple past. As the name says, this one is pretty simple. It is the basic form of describing things in the past - simple past. So, if Greg is running through the campground right now, you'd say:

Greg runs through the campground.

But if he did it yesterday, you'd say:

Greg ran through the campground.

For this form, you just change the verb to its simple past tense form. This is often done by adding an -ed to the end (watch/watched, climb/climbed), though, as 'ran' illustrates, some take other forms.

Past Progressive

Past progressive describes something that happened in the past, but has now stopped. It is achieved by combining a 'to be' verb (is/was/were) with the -ing form of the verb. So, what if Greg fell in hole while he was running?

Greg was running through the campground, but then he tripped and fell in a hole.

Past Perfect

So in past progressive, Greg stopped running because he tripped; but what if he decided to stop running when he saw the hole? Past perfect describes an action that was completed before something else in the past happened. It is accomplished with 'had' plus the past participle of the verb:

Greg had run through the campground, but stopped when he saw the big hole.

Past Perfect Progressive

So now, what if Greg saw the hole, but he didn't stop running? Past perfect progressive describes an event that happened and continued through another event. It is achieved by combining 'had been' with the -ing form of the verb:

Greg had been running through the campground when he saw the big hole.

Past Habitual

What if you want to describe not one particular event in the past but something that happened regularly? That is called the past habitual:

Greg used to run through the campground every day.

Less Common Past Tense Forms

So, we've covered the most common past tense forms that you are likely to use on a daily basis, but there are a few more that may come up occasionally.

Time-Specific Past Habitual

For instance, let's look at time-specific past habitual. This one is similar to past habitual (if you didn't gather from the name), but specifies a certain time when it stopped. This is accomplished with the word 'would' and the simple present tense. It also typically follows the specific reference to the time when it stopped:

Before he moved away, Greg would run through the campground every day.

Past Intensive

Next we have past intensive. This tense confirms something happened in the past and uses 'did' plus the present tense form of the verb:

Greg did run through the campground; I saw him.

Future in the Past

Finally, we have future in the past. As the name implies, this one gets a little confusing, but just describes something that was going to happen but now isn't. It uses 'was' or 'were' plus the -ing verb:

Greg was going to run through the campground, but decided not to.