Pre-existing concepts 

🔹 1. Past Simple:
To describe actions that happened and finished in the past.
Example:

• I visited my grandma yesterday.
  
  

🔹 2. Present Perfect basics:
To recognize the idea of linking two times.
Example:

• I have seen that movie before.
  
  

🔹 3. Continuous (progressive) forms:
To show actions in progress.
Example:

• I was reading when he called.
  
  

🔹 4. Timeline understanding:
Students must grasp the concept of one action happening before another action in the past.

We use Past Perfect Simple and Past Perfect Continuous to talk about actions that happened before another past action or time.

✅ Past Perfect Simple

Structure:
Subject + had + past participle

Use:
For completed actions that happened at a specific point in time before another past action.

Examples:

• She told her parents that she had done her homework.
  
  

• I realized that I had only completed half of my work.
  
  

👉 Focus is on the result of the action.

✅ Past Perfect Continuous

Structure:
Subject + had been + verb(-ing)

Use:
For actions that were in progress over a period of time before another action in the past.
It emphasizes the duration or that the activity might not be completed.

Examples:

• She told her parents that she had been doing her homework.
  
  

• I realized that I had been working on the wrong thing all day.
  
  

👉 Focus is on the process or duration of the action.

🎯 Key Takeaway:

• Use the Simple form to talk about an action that was finished before something else happened.

• Use the Continuous form to talk about how long an action was in progress before something else happened.

Let's watch a video!

Practice exercises

Pre-existing concepts 

🔹 1. Simple Past:
To describe actions that happened once or repeatedly in the past.
Example:
I played soccer every weekend when I was a kid.

🔹 2. Present tense contrast:
To understand that some habits or states can change over time.
Example:
Now I play tennis instead.

🔹 3. Frequency and habits:
To recognize the idea of repeated actions or routines in the past.
Example:
She always took the same bus to school.

🔹 4. Time expressions:
Students should identify past time markers such as when I was little, in those days, years ago, etc.

Used to

Structure:
Subject + used to + base verb

Use:

• To talk about past habits or repeated actions that don’t happen anymore.

• To describe past states or situations (feelings, facts, or conditions).
  
  

Examples:

• I used to go swimming every day.

• There used to be a park near my house.

• She used to live in Paris.
  
  

Focus: contrasts between the past and now (the action or state no longer happens).

Would

Structure:
Subject + would + base verb

Use:

• To describe repeated actions or routines in the past (not states).

• Often used in storytelling to make the narrative more vivid.
  
  

Examples:

• When we were kids, we would play outside until dark.

• My grandfather would tell me stories before bed.
  
  

Focus: on the repetition or pattern of actions in the past (not on change).

Key Takeaway

• Use used to to talk about past habits and past states that are no longer true.

• Use would to talk about repeated actions in the past, especially in stories or memories.

• Don’t use would with non-action verbs like be, have, know, like, believe.

Let's watch a video!

Practice exercises