To state simple facts in the past

The house stood on the hill.

She was beautiful.

I did not know who the man was.

What did you say?

 

The past indefinite, never the present perfect, is used in questions beginning with when, even though no indication of past time is made, because when implies a certain moment in the past. The answer can be either in the past indefinite or in the present perfect, depending on the situation: When did you see him? - I saw him two days ago. - I have just seen him.

Likewise, the past indefinite, not the present perfect, is used in ques­tions beginning with where because in such questions the reference to some past moment is implied: Where did you buy that hat? The implication is: when you were at the place where the action was performed.

2. To denote habitual actions in the past.

 

All summer I got up at 7.

On Sunday evening he took her to the pictures.

He usually took the first morning train.

 

Note:

 

Besides the past indefinite there are other ways of expressing habitual actions in the past:

a) by means of the form used to + infinitive:

Some years ago he used to call on me, now he never does.

 

The negative construction of used to is formed in one of two ways: didn’t used to and didn’t use to.

She didn’t use to knit in the evenings.

 

The interrogative construction is: did (he) used to? or did (he) use to...?

Did she used to write her articles at night?

Did he use to do it?

 

b) The other way to express habitual actions is by means of the verb would + infinitive stem. But unlike used

to, would always conveys an additional modal colouring of will, insistance, perseverance.

This used to be my mother’s room, and I would sit there for hours.

 

3. To denote a succession of past actions.

He got up, put on his hat, and left.

The car stopped, the door opened, and a very pretty girl got out of it.

 

4.To denote actions in progress at a certain moment in the past, with verbs that cannot be used in

continuous forms.

 

He was not listening but still heard what they were speaking about.

At that time he was on the watch.

 

5. To denote future actions in subordinate adverbial clauses of time and condition depending on

principal clauses with the predicate verb in a past tense.

 

She said she would come when the film was over.

She said she would do it if nothing unexpected happened.

The past perfect

Formation. The past perfect is formed analytically by the auxil­iary to have in the past indefinite and participle II of the notional verb. The interrogative and negative forms and built in the way usual for all analytic forms.

The past perfect is used:

 

1. To denote an action of which both the beginning and the end precede some moment of time in the past. This moment can be specified by an adverbial of time, or by another action, or else by the situation.

What should be borne in mind is that the use of the past perfect form is in itself a sufficient indication of the precedence of the denoted action to some moment in the past which therefore need not be specified.

 

He had finished his work by then.

I knew him a little: we had met in Rome a year before.

2. To denote an action in progress which began before a certain moment of time in the past and went on up to that moment and sometimes into it. In such cases either the starting point of the action is specified (by means of the adverb since, a prepositional phrase with since or an adverbial clause introduced by the conjunction since), or the period during which the action was in progress (by various adverbials):

 

a) with statal verbs, which do not normally allow of continuous forms:

 

He had been away for some months before his first letter came.

I could not believe the rumour. I had known him for a good many years.

 

b) with some actional durative verbs (in the similar way as with the past perfect continuous).

 

When we first met she had lived in the country for two years and was quite happy.

Since her mother's death she had slept in the comer room.

 

In this case the past perfect continuous can also be used, though with a slight difference of meaning: while the past perfect lays the stress on the mere fact that the action took place, the past perfect continuous accentuates the duration of the action.

 

3. To denote a succession of past actions belonging to the time preceding the narrative as a whole, thus describing a succession of events in the prepast time.

 

I gave a slight shiver. In front of me was a neat square of grass and a path and the low gate. Someone had opened the gate, had walked very correctly and quietly up to the house, and had pushed a letter through the letter-box.

 

The past perfect continuous

 

Formation. The past perfect continuous is formed analytically by means of the auxiliary to be in the past perfect (had been) and participle 1 of the notional verb.

In the interrogative the first auxiliary (had) comes before the subject, and the second auxiliary (been) and participle I follow the subject.

In the negative the corresponding negative forms of the first auxiliary (had) are used, the second auxiliary (been) and participle I follow the negation.

In the negative-interrogative the corresponding negative-interrogative forms of the first auxiliary are used first, the second auxiliary and participle I follow the subject.

The past perfect continuous is used with actional verbs to denote:

 

1. Actions in progress that began before a certain moment of time in the past and continued up to that moment, but not into it. As a rule no indications of time are present: the exact time of the beginning of the action is more or less clear from the situation, while the end, closely precedes the given moment of past time (the exclusive past perfect continuous).

 

Dick, who had been reading aloud Pit’s letter, suddenly stopped.

I had been feeling very tired, but now I grew alert.

 

2. Actions in progress that began before a certain moment of time in the past and continued into it. In this case either the starting point of the action or its duration is indicated (the inclusive past perfect continuous).

 

Ever since his return he had been losing strength and flesh.

She had been acting for a long time without a rest and she badly needed one.

Even now he could not stop, though he had been running all the way from the village.

 

The past perfect continuous is usually rendered in Russian by the past tense, imperfective.