Language/English/Grammar/Express-Past

Here is a quick article on how to express the past tenses in English.

The simple past.

It is used to talk about past events in a historic context using yesterday, or a date or time.

• Example: He died in 1920.

It indicates only a short action/period of time:

• "I saw a bird flying across the sky." -> we don't see the bird anymore.

The Present Perfect

It is used to situate past events in relation to the present situation.

• Examples: I have just ordered a new TV

The past perfect

It is normally only used when one past event has to be situated in a more distant past than another past event.

• Examples: I got off the train when a bell rang.