The European continent is heavily dominated by
Indo-European languages, all of which have a past tense. In some cases the tense is formed
inflectionally as in English
see/saw or
walks/walked and as in the
French imperfect form, and sometimes it is formed
periphrastically, as in the French
passé composé form. Further, all of the non-Indo-European languages in Europe, such as
Basque,
Hungarian, and
Finnish, also have a past tense.
Germanic languages English In English, the past tense (or
preterite) is one of the
inflected forms of a verb. The past tense of
regular verbs is made by adding
-d or
-ed to the base form of the verb, while those of
irregular verbs are formed in various ways (such as
see→saw,
go→went,
be→was/were). With regular and some irregular verbs, the past tense form also serves as a
past participle. For full details of past tense formation, see
English verbs. Past events are often referred to using the
present perfect construction, as in
I have finished (also known as
present in past). However this is not regarded as an instance of the past tense; instead it is viewed as a combination of
present tense with perfect
aspect, specifying a present state that results from past action. (It can be made into a past tense form by replacing the auxiliary
have with
had; see below.) Various multi-word constructions exist for combining past tense with
progressive (continuous) aspect, which denotes ongoing action; with perfect aspect; and with progressive and perfect aspects together. These and other common past tense constructions are listed below: • The
simple past consists of just the past tense (preterite) form of the verb (
he walked,
they flew, etc.), although when it is negated, emphasized or
inverted it is sometimes necessary to unfuse the verb, using a
periphrastic construction with
did (as in
did he walk? etc.) – see
do-support. The simple past is used for describing
single occurrences or
habitual occurrences in the past, and sometimes for states existing in the past with no connection to the present (or where such connection is irrelevant), and sometimes for states and sensual perceptions existing in the past. It also describes short, one-time past actions that interrupt another action in the past (as in
The telephone rang when I was watching TV). Additionally, it signals habitual or repeated actions in the past (as in
Every morning he got up and ate breakfast before he went to work). It expresses an event that is understood to have happened before another past event without using the past perfect tense (as in
When the play finished, the audience left quickly). In reported speech, it replaces the Present Simple (as in
She thought I needed help). Finally, it is used to describe an unreal or unlikely event in the present (as in ''If you bought the car, you couldn't afford much more''). • The
past progressive (past continuous) is formed using the simple past of
be (
was or
were) with
present participle (sometimes referred to as the -ing form) of the main verb:
He was going. This form indicates that an action was ongoing at the past time under consideration, often interrupted by another past action (as in
I was having a shower when you called). It describes an event that lasted for a certain period, emphasizing its duration and often implying it was unfinished (as in ''They were talking in a loud voice all night, and I couldn't sleep
). It is used for two actions happening at the same time in the past (as in John was playing football while she was doing her homework
). It also describes a temporary situation (as in When I got home, water was running down the kitchen walls
). In reported speech, it replaces the present progressive, especially when referring to a near-future or long-lasting action (as in She told me she was getting married''). • The
past perfect combines
had (the simple past of
have) with the
past participle of the main verb:
We had shouted. This denotes that an action occurred before a specified time in the past, and therefore has similar function to the
pluperfect found in some languages. It appears with prepositions such as
after, when, and
as soon as (as in
He went to Paris as soon as he had passed his exams). It follows the phrase
it was the first time (as in
It was the first time I had heard her sing). It expresses unfulfilled wishes and hopes (
I had hoped we would leave tomorrow). It describes an unreal past event that was a condition for another unfulfilled event (as in ''If you had bought a car, you couldn't have afforded a holiday abroad
). In reported speech, it replaces the Past Simple and Present Perfect (She announced that the rain had stopped''). • The
past perfect progressive (sometimes referred to as the past perfect continuous) combines
had (the simple past of
have) with
been (the past participle of
be) and the present participle of the main verb:
You had been waiting. It is used to refer to an ongoing action that continued up to the past time of reference. It indicates how long an event had lasted before a specific past moment (as in
We had been walking since sunrise, and we were hungry). It emphasizes the continuity of an event rather than its completion (as in
I had been reading science fiction, and my mind was full of strange images, whereas
I had read all the magazines and got bored emphasizes completion). It describes relatively short-lived situations (as in
My legs were stiff because I had been standing still for a long time, whereas
The tree that blew down had stood there for 500 years emphasizes a long-lasting state). In reported speech, it replaces the past progressive and present perfect progressive (as in ''Mary's mother said she'd been having a wonderful time in Italy''). • The expression
used to (with the
infinitive of the main verb) denotes a past
habitual situation (
I used to play football when I was young), although with a
stative verb it can just indicate that a state was continuously in effect (
I used to belong to that club). It is often used to emphasize that something happened a long time ago and is no longer the case. Another way of referring to past habitual action is to use
would, as in
As a child I would play the piano every day, although this auxiliary has other uses as well. For further details see
English modal verbs. For details of the usage of the various constructions used to refer to the past, see
Uses of English verb forms. The past tense is also used in referring to some hypothetical situations, not necessarily connected with past time, as in
if I tried or
I wish I knew. (For the possible use of
were in place of
was in such instances, see
English subjunctive.)
German German uses three forms for the past tense. • The preterite (
Präteritum) (called the "imperfect" in older grammar books, but this, a borrowing from Latin terminology, ill describes it.) • The perfect (
Perfekt) • The past perfect (
Plusquamperfekt) In southern
Germany,
Austria and
Switzerland, the
preterite is mostly used solely in writing, for example in stories. Use in speech is regarded as snobbish and thus very uncommon. South German dialects, such as the Bavarian dialect, as well as
Yiddish and Swiss German, have no preterite (with the exception of
sein and
wollen), but only perfect constructs. In certain regions, a few specific verbs are used in the preterite, for instance the modal verbs and the verbs
haben (have) and
sein (be). • Es
gab einmal ein kleines Mädchen, das Rotkäppchen
hieß. (There
was once a small girl who
was called Little Red Riding Hood.) In speech and informal writing, the
Perfekt is used (e.g., Ich
habe dies und das
gesagt. (I said this and that)). However, in the oral mode of North Germany, there is still a very important difference between the preterite and the
perfect, and both tenses are consequently very common. The preterite is used for past actions when the focus is on the action, whilst the present perfect is used for past actions when the focus is on the present state of the subject as a result of a previous action. This is somewhat similar to the English usage of the preterite and the present perfect. • Preterite: "Heute früh
kam mein Freund." (my friend came early in the morning, and he is being talked about strictly in the past) • Perfect: "Heute früh
ist mein Freund
gekommen." (my friend came early in the morning, but he is being talked about in the present) The past perfect is used in every German speaking country and it is used to place an action in the past before another action in the past. It is formed with an auxiliary (haben/sein) and a past participle that is placed at the end of the clause.
Dutch Dutch mainly uses these two past tenses: •
onvoltooid verleden tijd, which matches the English simple past and the German preterite, for example:
Gisteren was ik daar ("I was there yesterday"). •
voltooid tegenwoordige tijd, a present tense with the meaning of perfect. This form is made by combining a form of
zijn ("to be") or
hebben ("to have") with the notional verb, for example:
Gisteren ben ik daar geweest. This also means "I was there yesterday", but just as it is the case for English constructions with the present perfect simple, this kind of formulation puts more emphasis on the "being finished"-aspect. Less common is the
voltooid verleden tijd, which corresponds to the English past perfect. It is formed by combining an
onvoltooid verleden form of
zijn ("to be") or
hebben ("to have") with the notional verb, for example:
Ik was daar voor gisteren al geweest. This means "I had been there before yesterday." This tense is used to indicate that one action in the past occurred before another past action, and that the action was fully finished before the second action took place.
Other groups In non-Germanic
Indo-European languages, past marking is typically combined with a distinction between
perfective and
imperfective aspect, with the former reserved for single completed actions in the past.
French for instance, has an imperfect tense form similar to that of German but used only for past habitual or past progressive contexts like "I used to..." or "I was doing...". Similar patterns extend across most languages of the Indo-European family right through to the
Indic languages. Unlike other Indo-European languages, in
Slavic languages tense is independent of
aspect, with
imperfective and
perfective aspects being indicated instead by means of prefixes, stem changes, or
suppletion. In many
West Slavic and
East Slavic languages, the
early Slavic past tenses have largely merged into a single past tense. In both West and East Slavic, verbs in the past tense are conjugated for
gender (masculine, feminine, neuter) and
number (singular, plural).
Romance French French has numerous forms of the past tense including but not limited to: • Past perfective (
passé composé) e.g. ''J'ai mangé
(I ate
or I have eaten
, using the form but usually not the meaning of I have eaten'') • Past imperfective (
imparfait) e.g.
Je mangeais (
I was eating) • Past historic or Simple past (
passé simple) e.g.
Je mangeai (
I ate) (literary only) • Pluperfect (
Plus que parfait) e.g. ''J'avais mangé
(I had eaten'' [before another event in the past]) • Recent past (
passé recent) e.g.
Je viens de manger (
I just ate or
I have just eaten)
Spanish and Portuguese Spanish and
Portuguese have several forms of the past tense, which include but are not limited to: • Preterite tense (
préterito, pretérito) e.g.
Yo comí and
Eu comi (
I ate or
I have eaten) • Past imperfective (
imperfecto, imperfeito) e.g.
Yo comía and
Eu comia (
I was eating) • Pluperfect (
pluperfecto, mais-que-perfeito) e.g.
Yo había comido or
Yo hube comido and
Eu comera or
Eu tinha comido (
I had eaten [before another event in the past]) A difference in the pluperfect occurs between Spanish and Portuguese; in the latter, a synthetic pluperfect exists which follows the imperfect conjugations, but -ra replaces the -va seen in the verb endings. ==African languages==