Review of tenses: present simple, past simple and past perfect

🔊 La maîtresse lit pour toi

The end of a life story, told in a few lines: « Diana died in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997. Her violent and tragic death shocked the British nation. Her funeral proved to be the biggest British televised event in history. » Then, in the very same paragraph, one verb changes: « But the controversy over her death still goes on: a lot of people think that she was assassinated. » You already know the present simple, the past simple and the past perfect; this lesson makes sure you can choose between them inside one text. So why does a story in the past end with two verbs in the present?

🎓في نهاية هذا الدرس ستكون قادرا على:

اختيار الزمن المناسب بين ⁦present simple⁩ و ⁦past simple⁩ و ⁦past perfect⁩ داخل النصّ الواحد
تكوين الحاضر البسيط ونفيه بـ ⁦don’t⁩ و ⁦doesn’t⁩، ونهاية ⁦-s⁩ مع الغائب المفرد
تكوين الماضي البسيط في الإثبات والسؤال والنفي بـ ⁦did⁩، والتعرّف على مؤشّرات الزمن الماضي
استعمال ⁦past perfect⁩ المكوّن من ⁦had⁩ والتصريف الثالث للعودة إلى حدث سبق حدثا ماضيا آخر

🔑يفترض هذا الدرس أنّك تتقن:

نهاية ⁦-ed⁩ في الماضي البسيط للأفعال المنتظمة
التصريفات الثلاثة لأشهر الأفعال الشاذّة، مثل ⁦take – took – taken⁩
الفعل ⁦be⁩ في الحاضر والماضي: ⁦am, is, are⁩ و ⁦was, were⁩

1. The present simple: what is still true

يدلّ الحاضر البسيط على العادة المتكرّرة وعلى الحقيقة الدائمة، ولذلك يبقى حاضرا حتّى داخل نصّ يروي الماضي.

We use the present simple for two things: habits and routines — often with always, sometimes, never, every day, every year — and permanent facts, what is true in general. Its form is simple: for I, you, we, they the verb keeps its base form; after he, she, it we add -s or -es (he lives, she goes). The negative is don't or doesn't + base form, and the question is do or does + subject + base form. This is why a story about 1997 can end in the present: the controversy goes on today, and people think so today.

Two tenses in one paragraph

In 1999 the official investigation into the crash concluded that no one involved should face criminal charges. But the controversy over her death still goes on: a lot of people think that she was assassinated.

Task 1 — Why are « goes » and « think » in the present simple, in a text that tells the past?

لماذا جاء الفعلان الأخيران في الحاضر البسيط داخل نصّ يروي الماضي؟

Because they are still true when we read. The investigation concluded in 1999: that event is finished, so it takes the past simple. But the controversy goes on and people think so now: these are facts of the present, so they take the present simple. Notice the -s after « the controversy » and the absence of -s after « a lot of people ».

2. The past simple: the story itself

يروي الماضي البسيط الأحداث المنتهية، ويصاحبه غالبا مؤشّر زمنيّ يحدّد متى وقع الحدث.

We use the past simple to talk about an action, a situation or an event in the past. The event may be short or long, but it is finished, and a time marker often says when it happened. The affirmative is subject + verb in its past form, regular with -ed (watch → watched) or irregular (take → took). For the question we need the auxiliary did + subject + base form: Did she die in Paris? For the negative, did not or didn't + base form: She didn't die in London.

Time markers that announce a past simple

Marker	An example
yesterday	Yesterday, I saw a documentary about Diana.
last week, last year, last summer	Last year, we studied the British monarchy.
a duration + ago	Two weeks ago, the class read this story.
a date in the past	In 1997, Diana died in a car crash in Paris.
when I was…	When I was a child, I knew nothing about her.

Question: did + subject + base form. Negative: did not or didn't + base form.

The verbs of the story

Diana died in a car crash in Paris on 31 August 1997 together with her companion and their chauffeur. The accident happened as their car was being pursued by paparazzi photographers on motorcycles. Her violent and tragic death shocked the British nation and caused the introduction of tougher privacy laws. Diana's funeral proved to be the biggest British televised event in history. A record 31.5 million people watched the ceremony.

Task 2 — Sort these verbs into regular and irregular, and turn « A record 31.5 million people watched the ceremony » into a question and a negative sentence.

صنّف الأفعال إلى منتظمة وشاذّة، ثمّ حوّل الجملة الأخيرة إلى سؤال وإلى نفي.

Regular (-ed): died, happened, shocked, caused, proved, watched.
Irregular: none of the six verbs in bold is irregular — the only irregular past in the paragraph is was, the past of be — and that is what its task asks for — the story is written « with as many verbs with an -ed ending as possible ».
Question: Did a record 31.5 million people watch the ceremony?
Negative: A record 31.5 million people didn't watch the ceremony.

After did and didn't, the verb goes back to its base form: watch, not watched.

3. The past perfect: one step further back

يعود الماضي التامّ خطوة إلى الوراء: ⁦had⁩ مع التصريف الثالث لحدث انتهى قبل حدث ماضٍ آخر.

The past simple carries a story forward. When we need to go back to an event that was already finished before another past event, we use the past perfect: had + past participle — had gained, had written, had passed. It is often introduced by after, before or by the time, which show the order of the two events. Careful: had followed by a noun group is not a past perfect, it is the past simple of have.

Put the verbs in brackets in the present simple, the past simple or the past perfect.

1. By the time the official investigation (conclude) in 1999, two years (pass) since the accident. 2. The funeral (be) the biggest televised event in British history. 3. Today, a lot of people still (think) that her death was not an accident. 4. After the photographers (follow) the car for several minutes, the accident (happen). 5. Every year, visitors (come) to the places she supported.

Task 3 — the answers, and the question to ask each time

في كلّ جملة اسأل: أهو أمر ما زال صحيحا، أم حدث منتهٍ، أم حدث سبق حدثا ماضيا آخر؟

1. concluded … had passed — « by the time » puts the two events in order: the two years were already over when the investigation closed.
2. was — one finished event of the story: past simple.
3. think — « Today » and « still »: it is true now, present simple, no -s after people.
4. had followed … happened — « after » marks the earlier event, so the past perfect steps back.
5. come — « every year » is a habit: present simple.

One question sorts the three tenses: is it still true (present simple), finished (past simple), or finished before another past event (past perfect)?

Do this alone, in writing. Write four sentences about a person you admire: two in the past simple for what they did, one in the past perfect with after or by the time, and one in the present simple for what is still true about them today. Then check each verb: which of the three questions does it answer?

اكتب وحدك أربع جمل عن شخص تُعجب به: اثنتان في الماضي البسيط، وواحدة في الماضي التامّ، وواحدة في الحاضر البسيط.

A model answer

My grandmother left school at fourteen. She worked all her life as a seamstress. By the time she opened her own workshop, she had sewn for the whole village for ten years. Today, her machine still stands in our living room, and my mother uses it every winter. Two past simples tell the story, one past perfect steps back before the workshop, and the last sentence stays in the present because it is true now.

In the exam, the verb is given in brackets inside a short text, and you choose the tense. Read the sentence for its time words first: today, still, every year call the present simple; yesterday, last year, in 1997, ago call the past simple; after, before, by the time call the past perfect. Have three things ready: ① -s after he, she, it in the present simple; ② did and didn't + base form in past questions and negatives; ③ had + past participle for the earlier event. The frequent mistake is to put every past verb in the past perfect: the past simple tells the story, the past perfect only steps back.

What I keep — The present simple says what is a habit or still true (the controversy goes on), with -s after he, she, it. The past simple tells finished events (she died, people watched), and after did or didn't the verb returns to its base form. The past perfect — had + past participle — goes back to an event already finished before another past event, and after, before and by the time announce it. One question decides: still true, finished, or finished first?

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