Qual é a diferença entre past tense e past participle ?

Question

Qual é a diferença entre past tense  e past participle  ?

Kellyne · Answer

There are two ways to use the past participle in the past tense:
Present perfect = have/has + past participle (has given)
Past perfect = had + past participle (had given)

We use the present perfect to talk about experiences in our life where the exact time that we did something doesn’t matter:
“I have traveled to three different countries.” When I traveled doesn’t matter. 
“I have seen so many pretty sunsets.” I’m not saying when I saw them, I’m just saying that I have this experience.

We use the past perfect to make the order of events clear when we talk in the past tense:
“I had just finished my book when my friends arrived.” This means that I finished my book. Then, after I was done, my friends arrived. 
“I finished my book when my friends arrived.” This sounds like I waited to finish my book until my friends arrived. They arrived, and then, once they had arrived, I finished my book.

“I announced that dinner was ready, but everyone had already sat down at the table.” Everyone sat down, and then I announced that dinner was ready.

I hope this is helpful! Let me know if you want more examples or explanations.

Kellyne · Answer

@salimhw Hi! Good to hear from you.

Most of the time, you should use the past tense.

That said, here is another scenario where you might use the past perfect. I have put it in all caps to make it easier to find because it still mostly uses the past tense.

Imagine Chris is talking to Katie about something that happened yesterday:

Chris: Yesterday, I was playing the video game you gave me for my birthday. 
Katie: Oh, good! Was it fun?
Chris: Yeah, and I got really far. I almost finished the game. But it was so frustrating!
Katie: What happened?
Chris: I HAD just FINISHED one of the last levels, which took me like 2 hours to finish, when the power went out. 
Katie: Were you able to save any of your progress?
Chris: Yeah, thankfully the game HAD already SAVED most of it. I just had to replay the last part. It was still frustrating, though.

In the conversation above, Katie gave Chris the video game before he started playing it, but because that is an obvious order of events (and because saying it happened at his birthday makes it even more clear), you don’t need to use the past perfect. Where possible, you should generally just use the past tense.

Now let’s look at “had just finished.”
Chris has just said that something was so frustrating, and Katie wants to know what it is. Chris says that the frustrating thing is that the power went out. To give her context, he tells her something that happened before the power went out. Because it’s not the main point (the main point is that the power went out), he says “had finished” to show Katie that she should wait to hear what was actually frustrating. Finishing the level was the set-up to why the power going out was frustrating.

“The game had saved most of it”: This uses the past perfect to keep the order of events clear. In this case, you could also just use the past tense because the order of events is clear (the game’s progress naturally saved before the power went out, not afterwards). However, the conversation has a couple of verbs in the past tense before this sentence: “the power went out” and “were you able,” so to make it extra clear that we’re going back to before the power went out instead of moving on to the next event, we use the past perfect.

I hope this helps and doesn’t make things more confusing! If you want to give me some example sentences or a conversation of your own for me to correct to make sure you understand it, I’d be happy to look over it.

Kellyne · Answer

You got most of these right! I’ll give you my corrections soon.

Kellyne · Answer

I’m going to do these one by one so this doesn’t get too long.

3) You said: I fell as I HAD RUN for the bus. 
It should be: I fell as I WAS RUNNING for the bus. 
“had run” means you ran first, and then later you fell. “As” means that these two events happened at the same time. The verb form that shows that you fell during this action of rubbing is the past continuous.

Kellyne · Answer

D1: You said: Until a few years ago, no one heard of Harry Potter. 
It should be: Until a few years ago, no one had heard of Harry Potter.

A few years ago is already in the past, and we are talking about something from even earlier than that time, so we use the past perfect.

For example: Until a few years ago, no one HAD HEARD of Harry Potter.  Then, a few years ago, it BECAME very popular.

Kellyne · Answer

D5-6: You said: By the time the train REACHED the station, she HAD INVENTED the idea. 
It should be: By the time the train HAD REACHED the station, she HAD INVENTED the idea.

The main time frame for this paragraph is the time when Harry Potter became popular. JK Rowling came up with the idea for it before she wrote the book and before it became popular. So, since this is background information about an event even farther in the past than our main story, we use the past perfect.

Kellyne · Answer

A5 You said: The forensic evidence shows that he HAD PICKED his nose just before he was murdered. 
It should probably be: ...HAD BEEN PICKING ...

What you said is true if he picked his nose and then got murdered. It is more likely that he was doing that when he suddenly got murdered. Still, your answer is not necessarily wrong. Both are possible.

Kellyne · Answer

A8: You said: When they cancelled the flight to Alicante, the storm HAD RAGED all afternoon with no sign of abating. 
It should be: ...HAD BEEN RAGING...

This is similar to other sentences with “when.” Compare to B2 or B6, which you got right. I’d be happy to explain it to you further if you’d like. Just let me know.

Kellyne · Answer

7) you said: It was obvious from her outrageous behavior that she WAS DRINKING.
It should be: .. HAD BEEN DRINKING.

We would see her drinking if she were drinking right now. Since we are inferring it from her behavior (“It was obvious”) it makes more sense that she had been drinking earlier, which had made her drunk, and now she is acting weird. I hope this makes sense! Let me know if it doesn’t.

Kellyne · Answer

3.5: You said: What did he see while he SWIMMING?
It should be: ... while he WAS SWIMMING?

I think you just forgot the “was.” Good job!

Kellyne · Answer

@salimhw I’m glad I could help!

Soah_Twinkle22 · Answer

Past tense is 2nd form of verb and past participle is 3rd form of verb

Soah_Twinkle22 · Answer

@salimhw In tenses all three verbs are use that's why it's necessary to learn all three of them

Soah_Twinkle22 · Answer

@salimhw  for example  In present perfect we say "I have eaten" which talks about present while in simple past we say "I ate".

Qual é a diferença entre past tense e past participle ?Podes indicar apenas respostas exemplo.

Past tense is 2nd form of verb and past participle is 3rd form of verb

@salimhw In tenses all three verbs are use that's why it's necessary to learn all three of them

@salimhw for example In present perfect we say "I have eaten" which talks about present while in simple past we say "I ate".

You got most of these right! I’ll give you my corrections soon.

3.5: You said: What did he see while he SWIMMING?
It should be: ... while he WAS SWIMMING?

I think you just forgot the “was.” Good job!

@salimhw I’m glad I could help!

Pergunte a falantes nativos gratuitamente

Qual é a diferença entre past tense e past participle ?Podes indicar apenas respostas exemplo.

Past tense is 2nd form of verb and past participle is 3rd form of verb

@salimhw In tenses all three verbs are use that's why it's necessary to learn all three of them

@salimhw for example In present perfect we say "I have eaten" which talks about present while in simple past we say "I ate".

You got most of these right! I’ll give you my corrections soon.

3.5: You said: What did he see while he SWIMMING?It should be: ... while he WAS SWIMMING?I think you just forgot the “was.” Good job!

@salimhw I’m glad I could help!

Pergunte a falantes nativos gratuitamente

3.5: You said: What did he see while he SWIMMING?
It should be: ... while he WAS SWIMMING?

I think you just forgot the “was.” Good job!