Adverbials with the simple past tense

The association of the past tense with adverbials that tell us when something happened is very important. Adverbials used with the past tense must refer to past (not present) time. This means that adverbials which link with the present (before now, so far till now yet) are not used with past tenses.

Some adverbials like yesterday, last summer [> App 48] and combinations with ago are used only with past tenses

/ saw Jane yesterday/last summer Ago [> 7. 31], meaning 'back from now', can combine with a variety of expressions to refer to the past: e g. two years ago, six months ago, ten minutes ago, a long time ago

I met Robert Parr many years ago in Czechoslovakia

The past is often used with when to ask and answer questions: When did you learn about it⁹ - When I saw it in the papers

When often points to a definite contrast with the present: / played football every day when I was a boy

Other adverbials can be used with past tenses when they refer to past time, but can be used with other tenses as well [> 9.4]:

/ always liked Gloria

adverbs:

I often saw her in Rome

Did you ever meet Sonia?

I never met Sonia

We left at 4 o'clock/on TuesdayWe had our holiday in July / waited till he arrived I saw him as recently aslast week

Adverbial/prepositional phrases.

adverbial clauses: I met him when I was at college as + adverb + as:

Verbs, verb tenses, imperatives

The past progressive tense

Form of the past progressive tense

The past progressive is formed with the past of be + the -ing form. See under be [> 10.8] for details about form.

/ was

You were

He was

She was waiting [For spelling, > 9.10]

It was

We were

You were

They were

Uses of the past progressive tense

Actions in progress in the past

We use the past progressive to describe past situations or actions that were in progress at some time in the past:

/ was living abroad in 1987, so I missed the general election. Often we don't know whether the action was completed or not:

Philippa was working on her essay last night Adverbials beginning with all [> 5.22.2, 7.36] emphasize continuity:

It was raining all night/all yesterday/all the afternoon In the same way, still can emphasize duration [> 7.25]:

Jim was talking to his girlfriend on the phone when I came in and

was still talking to her when I went out an hour later