One of the most difficult moments in learning English is rightly considered to be times. Many people (from beginners to those who speak it fluently) often get confused in them. There are reasons for this, but the situation can be simplified if you know the hint words.
Reasons for confusion
Why are times in English difficult? Because their grammatical structure is different from the Russian language. We know only 3 tenses: past, future and present. In English there are 12 of them.
Sometimes the Future in the past construct is distinguished into a separate time category.
Such a number of modifications serves to quickly indicate the context and state of the action in question. This difference in understanding grammatical time in English and Russian creates difficulties.
Difference
For a Russian-speaking person, the differences of such a huge number of times will not be entirely clear (except that some of them are past, some are future and some are present). However, there is a difference between them.
Simple times notify the very fact of an action or event in the past, present or future. Continued time focuses on duration. Perfect - as a result, this form is similar to Russian verbs of a perfect form. Continued completed shows the result of the action, which also lasted for some time.
In order not to create even more confusion, we will analyze the two simplest variants of time: simple and continued by the example (Past Simple, Past Continuous) and pointer words.
Grammar
In the letter, Past Simple and Past Continuous are formed as follows:
In the affirmative sentence, the verb is taken in the second form, if it is incorrect, or the ending -ed is added .
In the interrogative or negative, either the additional word did / didn't, or the conjugation verb was / wasn't /, were / weren't added.
The main difference between the simple past and the continued past is that in the latter the verb is grammatically transformed into something that vaguely resembles the sacrament in Russian. The semantic verb is used inextricably with the was / were connective and takes the form of gerund.
I was reading a book for 3 hours. I read the book for three hours, and literally: I was reading a book for three hours.
In order not to get confused, you can just try to replace the verb with the participle or the verb adjective in the sentence. For instance:
Last week I tried to play a piano. Last week I tried to play the piano.
Last week I was trying to play a piano whole 3 hours. Last week I tried to play the piano for three hours (I was trying to play the piano for three hours). It sounds, of course, clumsy, but it clearly shows the difference.
Past Simple - Pointers and Essence
The simple past tense speaks of an action or event as a fact that happened once in the past. Duration and result are not taken into account, information about them is missing or not important. Answers questions like What did I / you / he / she / it / we / they do? What did I / you / he / she / she / it / we / they did / a / o / u?
For example: I cleaned my room yesterday. Yesterday I cleaned the room.
Past Simple timestamps are words that indicate a date or time in the past with no duration or completion, for example: yesterday (yesterday), on Monday (Monday) or any other day of the week, at night (at night), at midnight (at midnight) and so on, last year (last year) or any other constructions with the pretext of last, in (in 1998) or ago (a week ago).
In Past Simple, pointer words indicate precisely “past six” - last year, once, a long time ago, all these words indicate a fact of the past, a reality of what happened, by analogy with a simple future time, which indicates the date or time period when something is just about to happen in the long run.
Sometimes, as a marker in Past Simple, the pretext “during” appears. For example: He was born during the night. He was born at night.
You need to know Past Simple pointer words to make it easier to navigate the times of the English language and not get confused. They help to understand exactly what the emphasis in the proposal is, and which design will be more appropriate and better convey the essence.
Past Continuous - when and how to use
Continued and simple past differ among themselves not only grammatically, but also in meaning. Past Continuous is used when duration is important in context.
For example: I was cleaning my room for whole 4 hours yesterday. I cleaned my room as much as 4 hours yesterday. The emphasis in this proposal is on how much time the action took, on its duration, and not on the fact of what happened, as in Past Simple. Pointer words are also different.
You can find out when to use Past Continuous using the following markers:
- Words that limit the time period: for sometime (for some time), from smth till smth (from some time to some), whole (whole) or all the time (all the time) and derivatives,
- Actions indicating at the moment: at that moment, at that time (at that moment, at that time) and derivatives,
- Indicating the simultaneity of events: while (while), when (when).
State verbs
It is not superfluous to mention such words as to love, to think, to hate, to feel, to believe, to understand, to know, to remember, to look, to be, to forget. They are called state verbs - Stative Verbs. They are notable for the fact that they are not used for a long time. However, there are exceptions to each rule.
For example, the verb to think translates as “think,” but it also has another meaning that is close in meaning - “think”. In the second value, it can be used for an extended time.
- I was thinking about your suggestion the whole day. I pondered your proposal all day.
State verbs are also used in the form of gerund to emphasize emotionality, for example: I was loving you and you lied to me! I loved you, and you lied to me!