Guide to English grammar

I slept badly.
When did the first Winter Olympics take place?
The time of the action (last week) is over.
The past is the normal tense in stories.
Once upon a time a Princess went into a wood and sat down by a stream.
Some typical time expressions with the past simple are “yesterday, this morning/evening, last week/year, a week/month ago, that day/afternoon, the other day/week at eleven o'clock, on Tuesday, in 1990,just, recently, once, earlier, then, next, after
that”. Some of these are also used with the present perfect. • (5)

NOTE

1. 
   With the past simple we often say when the action happened.
   

I bought some gloves yesterday.
I went in the shop yesterday. It’s really good. I bought some gloves.
It is clear from the context that the action bought happened yesterday.
Sometimes there is no phrase of time, but we understand a definite time in the past.
I didn't eat any breakfast.
My sister took this photo.

2. 
   A phrase with ago means a finished time. It does not include the present, even though we measure it from the present. Compare these sentences.
   

I saw that film on Wednesday/two days ago.
I've seen that film.

2 We can also use the past simple for repeated actions.

We went to Austria a few times.
The children always played in the garden.
We can also use the past simple for states.
I was younger then. The Romans had a huge Empire.
We stayed on the Riviera for several weeks.

NOTE

1. 
   There are other ways of expressing repeated actions in the past. • 100
   

We used to go to Austria.
The children would always play in the garden.

For the past tense in a tentative request, e.g. / wanted to ask you something, •61(1) Note.

For the past tense expressing something unreal, e.g. I wish I had more money, • 241(3).

For the past tense expressing a possible future action, e.g. If I told you, you'd laugh, • 257(4)

4 Present perfect or past simple?
1 The choice depends on whether the speaker sees the action as related to the present or as in the past.
The shop has just opened.
The shop opened last week.
The two sentences can refer to the same action. The present perfect tells us something about the present: the shop is open now. But the past simple means a finished time (last week). It does not tell us about the present.

A practical guide to English grammar 72

Present Past Present Past

The shop has just opened. (So it's open now.) The shop opened last week. It's doing very well. The shop opened last week. Then it closed again two days later. The car has broken down. (So I have no transport now.) The car broke down. It's still off the road. The car broke down. But luckily we got it going again.

2 When we use the present perfect for a state, it means that the state still exists now. If the state is over, we use the past.

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