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Both simple past and used to can refer to past habits, past facts and past generalizations; however, used to is preferred when emphasizing these forms of past repetition in positive forms. On the other hand, when forming questions or negative sentences, modern prescriptive grammar dictates that the simple past is better. [5] [6] [7]
Say I have been promoted to colonel; you can use that if you're still a colonel, even though the promotion itself happened in the past. What makes those sentences sound wrong is the explicit date on the sentence. That makes it very difficult to use the present perfect in idiomatic English. --Trovatore 22:40, 1 January 2025 (UTC)
The simple past is often close in meaning to the present perfect. The simple past is used when the event happened at a particular time in the past, or during a period which ended in the past (i.e. a period that does not last up until the present time). This time frame may be explicitly stated, or implicit in the context (for example the past ...
The simple past or past simple, sometimes also called the preterite, consists of the bare past tense of the verb (ending in -ed for regular verbs, and formed in various ways for irregular ones, with the following spelling rules for regular verbs: verbs ending in -e add only –d to the end (e.g. live – lived, not *liveed), verbs ending in -y ...
In Homer and Herodotus, there is a past frequentative, usually called "past iterative", with an additional -sk- suffix before the endings. [3] ékhe-sk-on "I used to have" (imperfect ékh-on) The same suffix is used in inchoative verbs in both Ancient Greek and Latin. The infix may occur in the forms -σκ-, -ασκ-, and -εσκ-.
The past progressive (past continuous) is formed using the simple past of be (was or were) with present participle (sometimes referred to as the -ing form) of the main verb: He was going. This form indicates that an action was ongoing at the past time under consideration, often interrupted by another past action (as in I was having a shower ...
Synonyms often express a nuance of meaning or are used in different registers of speech or writing. Various technical domains may employ synonyms to convey precise technical nuances. Some writers avoid repeating the same word in close proximity, and prefer to use synonyms: this is called elegant variation. Many modern style guides criticize this.
Developed from clad, the past form of clothe (see below) cleave [meaning to split] – cleft/clove/cleaved – cleft/cloven/cleaved: Strong, class 2: Or weak with vowel shortening; regular when meaning "adhere" cling – clung – clung: Strong, class 3: clothe – clad/clothed – clad/clothed overclothe – overclad/overclothed – overclad ...