Past Tense

Simple past

Forms

With most verbs the past tense is formed by adding -ed:

call >> called; like >> liked; want >> wanted; work >> worked

But there are a lot of irregular past tenses in English. Here are the most common irregular verbs in English, with their past tenses:

The past continuous is formed from the past tense of be with the -ing form of the verb:

We use the past continuous to talk about the past:

Past continuous

For something which continued before and after another action:

The children were doing their homework when I got home.

Compare:

I got home. The children did their homework.
and
The children did their homework when I got home.

As I was watching television the telephone rang.

This use of the past continuous is very common at the beginning of a story:

The other day I was waiting for a bus when …
Last week as I was driving to work …

Past perfect

We use the verb had and the past participle for the past perfect:

I had finished the work.
She had gone .

The past perfect continuous is formed with had been and the -ing form of the verb:

I had been finishing the work
She had been going.

Function

The past perfect is used in the same way as the present perfect, but it refers to a time in the past, not the present.

We use the past perfect tense:

Examples:

·         for something that started in the past and continued up to a given time in the past:

When George died he and Anne had been married for nearly fifty years.
She didn’t want to move. She had lived in Liverpool all her life.

We normally use the past perfect continuous for this:

She didn’t want to move. She had been living in Liverpool all her life.
Everything was wet. It had been raining for hours.

·         for something we had done several times up to a point in the past and continued to do after that point:

He was a wonderful guitarist. He had been playing ever since he was a teenager.
He had written three books and he was working on another one.
I had been watching the programme every week, but I missed the last episode.

PHRASAL VERBS

Los Phrasal Verbs son verbos a los que acompaña un adverbio (phrasal verb) o preposición (prepositional verb) modificando el sentido del verbo al que acompañan. 

Estas expresiones se forman combinando verbos con preposiciones o con adverbios. El significado de estos verbos compuestos puede ser muy distinto al que podríamos deducir del significado individual del verbo y preposición (o adverbio) de los que se compone.

La importancia de los phrasal verbs radica en que tienen un uso muy común en inglés. Ten presente también que un mismo phrasal verb puede tener varios significados.

ADD UP	totalizar	ADD UP TO	alcanzar un total
ANSWER BACK	contestar de malos modos	ANSWER FOR	responder de
ASK ABOUT	preguntar por (un asunto)	ASK AFTER	preguntar por la salud
ASK FOR	pedir, preguntar por	ASK UP TO	pedir hasta (un precio)
ASK BACK	invitar a volver	ASK DOWN	invitar a bajar
ASK IN	invitar a entrar	ASK OUT	invitar a salir
ASK UP	invitar a subir
BACK AWAY	retroceder	BACK OUT	volver atrás
BACK UP	reforzar	BE ABOUT	estar por (un lugar)
BE AWAY	estar fuera	BE BACK	estar de vuelta
BE FOR	estar a favor de	BE IN	estar en casa
BE OFF	irse, estar apagado	BE ON	estar encendido
BE OUT	estar fuera	BE OVER	estar acabado
BE UP	estar levantado	BEND DOWN	agacharse
BEND OVER	inclinarse	BLOW AWAY	llevarse (el viento)
BLOW DOWN	derrumbarse por el viento	BLOW OFF	dejar salir (el vapor)
BLOW OUT	apagar (se) (una llama)	BLOW UP	volar (con explosivos)
BREAK AWAY	soltarse	BREAK DOWN	derruir, averiarse
BREAK IN	irrumpir, interrumpir	BREAK OFF	romper (se) (relaciones)
BREAK UP	terminar el curso o una relación	BREAK OUT	estallar (una guerra)
BRING BACK	devolver	BRING ABOUT	acarrear
BRING ALONG	traer (consigo)	BRING DOWN	derribar, rebajar
BRING IN	hacer entrar	BRING OUT	hacer salir, publicar
BRING UP	criar, educar	BRUSH OFF	quitar el polvo
BURN AWAY	consumirse (el fuego)	BURN DOWN	derrumbarse (por el fuego)
BURN OUT	consumirse (el fuego)	BURN UP	consumirse (por el fuego)
BUY FOR	comprar por o para	BUY OVER	sobornar
BUY UP	acaparar
CALL AT	Hacer una visita, hacer escala	CALL AWAY	Seguir llamando
CALL BACK	Llamar (a alguien) para que regrese	CALL FOR	Pedir a voces, exigir
CALL IN	Llamar (a alguien) para que entre	CALL ON	Ir a ver (a alguien)
CALL OUT	Gritar	CALL OVER	Pasar lista, enumerar
CALL UP	Telefonear	CALL DOWN	Llamar (a alguien) para que baje
CARRY ALONG	Persuadir	CARRY OFF	Llevarse a la fuerza
CARRY ON	Continuar	CARRY OUT	Llevar a cabo
CLEAR AWAY	Dispersar (se)	CLEAR OFF	Marcharse
CLEAR OUT	Marcharse	CLEAR UP	Aclararse (el tiempo,un misterio)
CLOSE DOWN	Cerrar	CLOSE UP	Acercarse
COME ABOUT	Suceder	COME ACROSS	Encontrarse con
COME ALONG	Acompañar, venir por (la calle)	COME AT	Embestir
COME AWAY	Desprenderse	COME DOWN	Bajar
COME FOR	Venir por (en busca de)	COME FROM	Venir de
COME IN	Entrar	COME OFF	Desprenderse
COME ON	¡Vamos! (en imperativo)	COME OUT	Salir
COME TO	Ascender (una suma), volver en sí.	COME UP	Subir
COME UP TO	Acercarse a	COUNT IN	Incluir
COUNT ON	Contar con	COUNT UP	Calcular
COUNT UP TO	Contar hasta	CRY FOR	Pedir llorando
CRY OUT	Llorar a gritos	CRY OVER	Lamentarse
CRY TO	Llamar a gritos	CUT DOWN	Reducir gastos, talar
CUT IN	Interrumpir	CUT OFF	Separar de un tajo
CUT OUT	Recortar, omitir	CUT THROUGH	Acortar por un atajo

1. Be sure to put on a life jacket before getting into the boat.
2. We left out the trash for pickup.
3. It’s time to get on the plane.
4. What will she think up next?
5. I’m having some trouble working out the solution to this equation.
6. We’re going to have to put off our vacation until next year.
7. Stand up when speaking in class, please.
8. We’ll have to wake up early if we want breakfast.
9. Take off your shoes before you walk on the carpet.
10. My dog likes to break out of his kennel to chase squirrels.