 Past indefinite  Past continuous  Past perfect  Past perfect continuous  Eg  Sita sang a song  Sita was singing a song  Sita had sung a song  Sita had been singing a song since 9 o’clock.  Present tense

 The simple past is used to indicate an action completed in the past. It often occurs with adverbs or adverb phrases of past time.  I received his letter a week ago  She left school last year. Usage – it is used without an adverb of time where the time may be either impled or indicated by the contextI learnt hindi in Nagpur. It is also used for past habits he studied many hours everyday. She always carried an umbrella.

 Used to denote an action going on at some time in the past. The time of the action may or may not be indicated.  We were watching TV all evening.  It was getting darker.  This tense is also used with always, continually etc. for persistent habits in the past.  He was always grumbling.  Two actions at the same time  While she was cooking, I was washing the clothes  While I was singing, ramesh was reading.

 The past perfect describes an action completed before a certain moment in the past…  I met him in new delhi in I had seen him last five years before  If two actions happened in the past…to show the sequences of action  When I reached the station the train had started.  I had done my exercise when hari came to see me.

 The past perfect continuous is used for an action that began before a certain point in the past and continued up to that time  At that time he had been writing a novel for two months.  When mr. Mukherji came to the school in 1995, Mr. Anand had already been teaching there for five years.