Quote:
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Originally Posted by Amy I always get confused with Past Tense, Past Perfect Tense, Past Participle, Past Progressive Tense, Past Perfect Progressive Tense, Past Simple Tense.
So can anyone tell me the difference between them? |
Simple Past: I walked
Past Perfect: I had walked
Past Participle: a walked dog
Past Progressive: I was walking
Past Perfect Progressive: I had been walking
The difference between the Simple and the Progressive is like the difference between a snapshot and a video. The Simple expresses a still picture, whereas the video expresses movement.
I walked to the store. (a still picture)
I was walking to the store. (movement)
The difference between the Simple Past and the Past Perfect has to do with the number of events:
Event: I walked to the store. (One event)
Events:
I had walked the dog before
I did my homework. (Two events)
With the Past Perfect, the event that happened first takes 'had -ed':
First, I walked the dog, and then I did my homework.
I had walked the dog before I did my homework.
Note, since 'before' and 'after' already tell us that one event happened before/after the other event, some speakes will omit the Past Perfect marker 'had' because they feel it's redundant information:
I
had walked to the store before I did my homework. (OK)
I walked to the store before I did my homework. (OK)
A Participle is a word that ends in -ed or -ing. They have two functions: as an adjective, they modify nouns, and as a part of a verb, they modify verbs. For example, the words 'walked' and 'walking' in the Past Perfect structures 'had
walked' and 'have been
walking' are participles. A participle that ends in -ed is calles a past participle and a participle that ends in -ing is called a present participle.
a
walked dog (past participle)
a
walking dog (present participle)
have
walked (past participle)
have been
walking (present participle)
I
walked (Past tense verb)
Past tense 
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