Grammar-Quizzes.com

Past Diagnostic

Past Tense Diagnostic Quiz: a tool to help you identify specific points that need review

• Quiz 1: beginning – intermediate
• Quiz 2: intermediate – advanced 

Past Complete

Past Complete: reporting past activities or events

• past vs. past progressive
• adverbs: temporary vs. permanent
  • last, ago, yesterday, this morning
  • usually, often, sometimes, when I ...
• sentence forms
  • statement
  • question
  • negative
  • emphais
• word order: auxiliary verbs

I got a speeding ticket on June 16, 2008.

I have gotten several tickets in the past.

Past Progressive

Past Progressive: indicating temporary activities

• past vs. past progressive
• temporary vs. permanent
• past progressive "background" activities
• adverbs & conjunctions

Alison lived in San Francisco after she finished school.
Alison took the train while she was living in San Francisco.

We saw two cars crash.
As we were walking along the sidewalk, we saw two cars crash.
 

Past Habits

Past Progressive: indicating temporary activities

• would vs. used
• behavior vs. habits
• conditioned activities in the past
• focusing on time vs. habit

We would go to the beach after school.
We used to go to the beach after school. (earlier stage of life)

She used to have a surf board.  (state of possession)
She would have a surf board.   

Reporting Source

Reporting Source: telling source or emotional impact

Past vs. present perfect

• past – focus: who, what, why, when, where, source
• present perfect  –  focus: duration or recency

• past – focus: action – emotional response
• present perfect  –  focus: time – duration or experience
   

Where did you get those jeans?
Where have you been (for the past few hours)?

Wow! He did a backflip!
He has done lots of backflips in his career.

Past Series

Past Series: reporting a past series of events

Past vs. past perfect

• Use past tense to report a series of events.
• Use past perfect tense to emphasize an earlier event.

I looked behind me a saw a police car. He had been following me for a mile.

Past Perfect

Past Perfect: contrasting earlier events from later events

• after
• before
• when
• by the time

After I had fallen asleep, I started to dream.

Past Perf Edit

Past Perfect Edit: using the past tenses in context

• past
• past perfect

My father, my mother, my younger sister and I got into my father's '58 Ford to go to Cordoba where my parents rented a house up in the hills.

Participles1

Participles2

Past/ Participle Verb Forms: practice using irregular verb forms

Practice 1:  awake – lay

Practice 2:  let – wear

Jaycee (spinned, span, spun?) _____the ball on his finger last night.