1: LANGUAGE FOCUS REFERENCE - UNIT 1 | Tiếng Anh 9 (Friends Plus) | UNIT 8: SCARY - Lớp 9 - Giáo Dục Việt Nam

Past perfect

 We form the past perfect with the subject + had + past participle.

Usage

We use the past perfect to talk about an action in the past which finished before a more recent past action.

We went into town after we'd had lunch.

(First action = we had lunch;

second action we went into town.)

We use after and before to link events in time, to show that one action follows another.

We took the apples back to the shop after we'd discovered that they were rotten.

Molly and Clara had eaten before they went out.

Past narrative tenses

Past simple

We form the past simple of regular verbs by adding -ed to the infinitive.

play → played

study → studied

There are no spelling rules for past simple irregular verbs, and each one must be learned. Refer to the Irregular verbs list on page 107.

Usage

We use the past simple to describe an action which happened in the past and is completed.

I did my homework and then I went to sleep.

Past continuous

We form the past continuous with the subject + was / were + -ing form of the verb.

Usage

We use the past continuous to talk about an action that was in progress in the past.

"What were you doing at eight o'clock last night?"

"I was talking to my friend."

We use the past continuous and the past simple together when one action interrupts another. We use the past continuous to describe the action in progress and the past simple for the action that interrupts it.

We usually use while with the past continuous and when with the past simple.

I was searching for my keys when I found the earring.

While I was looking through my photos, I came across Sa postcard from my friend Jana.

Time connectors

We can use the following time connectors to indicate how different time periods link together in a narrative:

afterwards = later

before at an earlier time

by the time = not later than that time

in the end, finally = at last

just as = at the same time as

meanwhile = at the same time as another thing is happening

the moment that = exactly at the time that

until = up to the time when

while = during the time that