Questions tagged [past-simple]
Questions related to the past simple, simple past or preterite, which is mainly used to describe events in the past.
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I'm being corrected "I had a headache yesterday" vs "I have had a headache yesterday"
My friend asked me just today, "Hey, how are you?"
I said, "Tired, sleepy, and can't concentrate on my work."
He then asked, "Why so?"
Here is where the interesting part starts.
I ...
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"Did you watch this movie?" or "Have you watched this movie?"
What is the difference between
Did you watch this movie?
and
Have you watched this movie?
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Which is more appropriate? "I was married" OR "I have been married"?
Suppose, we're (I and my wife) asked by people how long our marriage is since we got married. Which tense should I use? Past tense or perfect tense or else?
We were married for 15 years.
We've been ...
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"Tea drinking" vs. "tea drunk" in this context
Which of these two is preferred?
A: Tea drinking is a British custom
B: Tea drunk is a British custom
P.S. What is it called when we say tea drinking instead of drinking tea?
Also, can we ...
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"I built a giant house of playing cards an hour ago"
I built a giant house of playing cards an hour ago.
Given that building it took many hours (say, three), does the sentence mean that:
I finished building a giant house of playing cards an hour ago....
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Is the present perfect ok in "We have seen them in 2011"?
Please look at the following emphasized sentence taken from the news Curfew without end.
Neither of these — the government’s curfew and restrictions, or the protest programmes of the secessionist ...
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7
answers
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"It'd been... since"
I've been working on these sentence structures lately:
It has been... since...
It had been... since...
I've learned that we can use past simple and present perfect after since with "it has been" ...
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Past Perfect or Past Simple?
Which is more correct:
Recently I was hungry
or
Recently I have been hungry
I think that the second variant is more correct.
Could you please explain to me what do you think about it.
Thank ...
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answer
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"Did you already...?" and "Have you already...?"
Is there any semantic difference between "Did you already" and "Have you already" questions?
For example:
1a) Did you already do your homework?
1b) Have you already done your ...
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Is "I never saw him yesterday" grammatical?
Is "I never saw him yesterday" grammatical, used to mean that "at no point in time in yesterday did I see him"? Does the sentence sound weird to a native speaker of AmE?
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"I made it" vs. "I've made it"
If I want to say that I was able to accomplish something, when should I say "I made it", and when should I say "I've made it"? What's the difference between the two forms?
Please give me a long ...
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"Dostoyevsky is a Russian writer. He has written Crime and Punishment." - or is it "he wrote"? [duplicate]
Which of the two sentences would look more natural in this short text:
Dostoyevsky is a famous Russian writer. He has written Crime and Punishment.
or
Dostoyevsky is a famous Russian writer. He ...
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.... I was being! / what does it mean?
I could hardly believe how bold I was being!
I got detention because a teacher said I was being contumacious
.....
What does the word being here mean ? and what are the tenses in these sentences ...
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"I have ridden a rollercoaster and now I'm dizzy" - correct or not?
I am not a native English speaker, and the sentence in the title came up yesterday when I was talking with my friend (who is a native English speaker) about English grammar.
Consider the sentence
...
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weren't playing vs didn't play
Did your team win the football match yesterday?
The weather was very bad, so we weren't playing.
vs
The weather was very bad, so we didn't play.
Is the first one not correct? Why is it?
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"was created" vs "has been created"
When I create something in the past and do not mention the time, the first thing that comes to my mind is: Present Prefect (PP)
I'd use the PP to describe an action when the time is not important and ...
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answers
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'Have just finished' vs. 'Just finished': What is the difference?
I have just finished my homework.
I just finished my homework.
I think there must be a difference in meaning.
Could anyone tell me the difference in meaning sentence 1 and sentence 2?
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Why is the Past Perfect not used here?
A quote from The Innocents Abroad, by Mark Twain:
A devout lady who died, left money and contracted for unlimited masses
for the repose of her soul, and also stipulated that this lamp should
be ...
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"Jack {lived/has lived/has been living} in New York for ten years. Now he lives here."
Murphy's Intermediate Grammar test:
Jack ____ in New York for ten years. Now he lives here.
lived
has lived
has been living
Use of "has" and "has been" in English is pretty ...
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"We don't install..." or "We didn't install..."?
I'm confused about whether I should choose present simple or past simple in this context:
X: Why can't I find the Wi-Fi network?
Y: Err... We __(install) Wi-Fi in our home.
Note that Y has no ...
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"L'Oréal did not immediately respond…" Since there is still no response, why does BBC use simple past?
"L'Oréal did not immediately respond to a BBC request for comment." (BBC: Françoise Bettencourt Meyer: L'Oréal heiress first woman to amass $100bn fortune)
When you read the text, you ...
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"The job springboarded him into the profession at which he <would eventually excel> <eventually excelled>."— Why can we need the variant with "would"?
oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com:
(1) The job springboarded him into the profession at which he would eventually excel.
my subsidiary example:
(1a) The job springboards him into the profession at which ...
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I never saw a real hippo before
I'm in a zoo, looking at a hippo. I say to my friends,
I've never seen a real hippo before. My long-standing wish's been finally satisfied.
Can I change the first sentence to
I never saw a real ...
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When I tell a story in the past, shouldn't I use past tense when the verbs are describing states?
I asked someone to correct my sentence in the other site, the sentence is:
I saw her yelling at her boyfriend, but he seemed to be indifferent.
They corrected the sentence for the usage of the tense ...
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answers
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What is the difference between Present Perfect and past simple? [duplicate]
What's the difference between A and B in each group of sentences?
Suppose you now work and live in America. But you used to work and live in Japan.
A:Where have you worked in Japan?
B:Where did you ...
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What is the difference between "I did" and "I have done" [duplicate]
I am always confused about when to use "I did something..." and when to use "I have done something..."
Please kindly explain and provide some examples.
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Should I use the past simple "I learned", or the present perfect "I've learned"?
Please explain which is correct:
I've learned to ride a bicycle when I was five
I learned to ride a bicycle when I was five
For me both of them are correct.
barraza.ae
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I lived Vs. I was living
In 1999, I was living in Cuba.
In 1999, I lived in Cuba.
Do both sentences seem grammatically correct?
My teacher had told that the first sentence, which is with past continuous, is incorrect. ...
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past simple or present perfect progressive with recently
I have been listening to it a lot recently and everytime I've thought: what a great album.
or
I listened to it a lot recently and I thought: What a great album.
Which sentence is better? I think ...
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For or Since or Nothing
Following situation is given:
Sue has been in France for the last three weeks.
I have to repeat this sentence using, "She went ...", I would say something like this:
"She went to France three ...
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Have helped/helped in “Lots of people ____ us last year”
There are many confusing questions in Present Perfect vs. Past Simple debates, but one thing was always clear to me - if we refer to the past and use such phrases as "last week", "last year", etc. we ...
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Using Simple Present Tense for general truth in the past
Okay, I know it may sounds silly but I just can't get this question out of my head.
So one of the functions of simple present tense is to state general truths. Like, "The sun rises from the east," ...
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I've found vs I found
In Cyndi Lauper's song called Money Changes Everything she says:
I'm sorry, baby, I'm leaving you tonight.
I found someone new he's waitin' in the car outside.
Is it grammatically correct to ...
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When can I use present perfect for old events?
In English Grammar in Use, it is said that we have to use past simple instead of present perfect for things that are not recent or new:
Use the past simple (not the present perfect) for things that ...
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Is the following usage of past progressive correct?
What is the difference between the past continuous and the simple past usage of these sentences?
They were fighting Nazis for three days.
And
They fought Nazis for three days.
Can ...
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tense usage: "It has been (is) two weeks since I've seen (last saw) you"
A. It is two weeks since I've seen you.
B. It has been two weeks since I've seen you.
C. It is two weeks since I(last) saw you.
Would you please show me which of the sentences would be correct, and ...
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"Before last year" vs "the year before last"
I finished school the year before last.
I finished school before last year.
Is there any difference between these phrases?
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Question format using did
Is there any meaning difference in below questions?
a) Which movie you saw yesterday?
b) Which movie did you see yesterday?
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Why is the past simple used in "As soon as I started the car I realised..."?
As soon as I started the car I realised that something was wrong with the engine
I thought it would be possible to use present perfect "As soon as I've started the car...", meaning the action has ...
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is "folded" a verb or adjective?
Do the following sentences have the same voice form? Are they passive?
And do they use the same tense? simple past?
The clothes were folded and the room was cleaned.
The clothes were folded by ...
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Can "before" be equal to "when" in certain contexts?
There are the following sentences:
"I had been waiting for three months before they finally sent
me an answer"
"He had been waiting for the bus for 10 minutes before it arrived"
...
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Didn't or haven't or hadn't
I'm trying to write a sentence but can't decide which is the correct form:
For anyone who didn't notice, he is tall.
For anyone who hasn't noticed, he is tall.
For anyone who hadn't noticed,...
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1
answer
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Using "just" and "just now"
Is it correct to say for sure that we use "just" with Present Perfect and "just now" with Past Simple and it's incorrect to do it vice versa?
For example:
I've just done it.
I did it just now.
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"Have ever done before" or "ever did before"
What is the difference between
a) I've done a lot of exercise in my life, but I've done more in the last few days than I've ever done before.
b) I've done a lot of exercise in my life, but I've done ...
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Semantic difference: "What have you expected?" vs. "What did you expect?"
I'm wondering what the semantic difference is between these sentences:
What have you expected?
and
What did you expect?
In both questions we are talking about the past, and both are translated ...
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Past Simple for single events
I am trying to understand what meaning Past Simple carries when it's combined with a period of time. (compared to Past Continuous)
Yesterday I stayed home because it was raining
As I understand, ...
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Is it better to use past simple in that case
Apologies about this. Unfortunately nothing showed up regarding the order until recently. I will get the single packed and sent to you this week.
I was wondering if past perfect can fit because "...
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"I didn't know Ed was Welsh" or "I didn't know Ed is Welsh"? [duplicate]
I came across these two sentences and asked myself whether I could always use both versions:
I didn't know Ed was Welsh.
Did you know that Cliff's wife is Canadian?
Both relates to someone's ...
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"running for an hour " scenarios
I would like to ask which sentences would a native speaker use for the following scenarios :
You have been running for an hour and then you bump into your friends.You both keeps on running without ...
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I'm very tired because I travelled for several hours this morning
According to another thread, sentences 1, 3, and 4 are correct. But sentence 2 doesn't sound idiomatic. Would you please explain the reason?
In the afternoon, I said,
I'm very tired because I was ...
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