1

PAST TENSE WORKSHEET TEACHER HANINI SUHAILA HAMSAN

1. Jane ___________ watching TV earlier.
 is  were  was  be

2. She ________ been talking on the phone when her parents came
home.
 have  has  had  was
   
3. She ______ know what time it was, but she said she didn’t.
 have  has  had  was
   
You always use the simple past when 
you say when something happened,
so it is associated with certain past SIMPLE PAST, IRREGULAR
time expressions
VERBS
 frequency: often, sometimes, Some verbs are irregular in the simple past. Here are
always the most common ones.
I sometimes walked home at
lunchtime.
I often brought my lunch to
TO GO
school.
 a definite point in time: last  He went to a club last night.
week, when I was a child,  Did he go to the cinema last night?
yesterday, six weeks ago  He didn't go to bed early last night.
We saw a good film last
week. TO GIVE
Yesterday, I arrived in
Geneva.  We gave her a doll for her birthday.
She finished her work  They didn't give John their new address.
atseven o'clock  Did Barry give you my passport?
I went to the theatre last
night
 an indefinite point in TO COME
time: the other day, ages
ago, a long time ago  My parents came to visit me last July.
People lived in caves a long  We didn't come because it was raining.
time ago.  Did he come to your party last week?
She played the piano when
she was a child.

 

        
 2

The past perfect continuous follow Subject + had been + ing Verb

1 Because Jane ________________ looking at her iPhone all morning, she

didn’t hear the news.

 was  had been  has  was

2 I _______ been eating a lot of cheeseburgers; then I realized it was unhealthy.

 am  had  have  has

3 They had been _________ in that house since 2006, but they moved.

 live  life  living  lived

4 He had ________ taking that exam for 2 hours when the teacher said “time’s up!

 be  been  being  not

Past Perfect Continuous

f t g+ p
The past perfect continuous (also called past perfect progressive) is a verb tense which
is used to show that an action started in the past and continued up to another point in the
past. Read on for detailed descriptions, examples, and present perfect continuous
exercises.

Past Perfect Continuous Forms

The past perfect continuous is formed using had + been + present participle.
Questions are indicated by inverting the subject and had. Negatives are made with not

 Statement: You had been waiting there for more than two hours when she finally
arrived.
 Question: Had you been waiting there for more than two hours when she finally
arrived?
 Negative: You had not been waiting there for more than two hours when she
finally arrived.
 3

Past Perfect Continuous Uses

USE 1 Duration Before Something in the Past

We use the past perfect continuous to show that something started in the past and
continued up until another time in the past. "For five minutes" and "for two weeks" are
both durations which can be used with the past perfect continuous. Notice that this is
related to the present perfect continuous; however, the duration does not continue until
now, it stops before something else in the past.

Examples:

 They had been talking for over an hour before Tony arrived.
 She had been working at that company for three years when it went out of
business.
 How long had you been waiting to get on the bus?
 Mike wanted to sit down because he had been standing all day at work.
 James had been teaching at the university for more than a year before he left for
Asia.
 A: How long had you been studying Turkish before you moved to Ankara?
B: I had not been studying Turkish very long.

USE 2 Cause of Something in the Past

Using the past perfect continuous before another action in the past is a good way to
show cause and effect.

Examples:

 Jason was tired because he had been jogging.

 Sam gained weight because he had been overeating.
 Betty failed the final test because she had not been attending class.

Past Perfect had + past particple verbs

 4

1 Jane _____ traveled to Europe already, she wanted to go to Asia.

 had  has  have  having

2 I had ______ squid, but I had never eaten octopus.

 eat  eating  eaten  ate

3 They had _______in that house for 10 years when they received

the eviction notice.

 live  lived  living  life

4 He _______taken the exam already, and felt confident that he

had done well.

 has  had  have  be

Past Perfect Forms

The past perfect is formed using had + past participle. Questions are indicated by
inverting the subject and had. Negatives are made with not.

 Statement: You had studied English before you moved to New York.
 Question: Had you studied English before you moved to New York?
 Negative: You had not studied English before you moved to New York.

Past Perfect Uses

USE 1 Completed Action Before Something in the Past

The past perfect expresses the idea that something occurred before another action in the
past. It can also show that something happened before a specific time in the past.

Examples:
 5

 I had never seen such a beautiful beach before I went to Kauai.

 I did not have any money because I had lost my wallet.
 Tony knew Istanbul so well because he had visited the city several times.
 Had Susan ever studied Thai before she moved to Thailand?
 She only understood the movie because she had read the book.
 Kristine had never been to an opera before last night.
 We were not able to get a hotel room because we had not booked in advance.
 A: Had you ever visited the U.S. before your trip in 2006?
B: Yes, I had been to the U.S. once before.

USE 2 Duration Before Something in the Past (Non-Continuous Verbs)

With non-continuous verbs and some non-continuous uses of mixed verbs, we use the
past perfect to show that something started in the past and continued up until another
action in the past.

Examples:

 We had had that car for ten years before it broke down.
 By the time Alex finished his studies, he had been in London for over eight years.
 They felt bad about selling the house because they had owned it for more than
forty years.

Although the above use of past perfect is normally limited to non-continuous verbs and
non-continuous uses of mixed verbs, the words "live," "work," "teach," and "study" are
sometimes used in this way even though they are NOT non-continuous verbs.