PASTTENSE

Past tense

The past tense is a grammatical tense whose principal function is to place an action or situation in past time. In languages which have a past tense, it thus provides a grammatical means of indicating that the event being referred to took place in the past. Examples of verbs in the past tense include the English verbs sang, went and was.

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past tense

Noun

  1. Past tense is the form of language used to refer to an event, transaction, or occurrence that did happen or has happened, or an object that existed, at a point in time before now. Compare with present tense, which refers to an event, transaction or occurrence which is happening now (or at the present time), or an object that currently exists; or with future tense, which refers to an event, transaction or occurrence that has not yet happened, is expected to happen in the future, or might never happen.
    "Has the #5 bus arrived?" "Yeah, you missed it." (past tense)
    "The bus is too far away. I can’t make it." (present tense)
    "I saw the #5 bus across the street. I won’t make it." (future tense)


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: past tense
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