A Dictionary of Cont..

e, which has the past singular was and the past
plural were.
The simple past tense is used chiefly in s;peaking
of a particular, individual action in the past,
as in he walked home. It may be used of actions
already completed at some time in the past, such
as finished in alter he finished the work he
walked home. As a rule, we express habitual or
customary action in the past by used followed
by a @infinitive, as in he used to walk home.
See used to.
Did (the past tense of to do) followed by the
simple form of a verb is used in place of a simple
past tense in questions and in negative statements,
as in did Scott enjoy the concerts? and
Lee did not say so. The same form is used to
make a simple past statement emphatic, as in
Ken did enjoy them.
Had (the past tense of to have) followed by
a past participle is used to show that an action
occurred or was completed before some time
which is also in the past, as in he had to/d his
story and they had walked home. This is called
the past perfect tense. Certain kinds of actions,
such as thinking, hoping, believing, normally
continue once they have begun. When a verb of
this kind is put in the past perfect tense, as in Z
had thought, Z had believed, the important thing
about the statement is that the thinking or believing
is completely in the past, no longer a
thing of the present.
PROGRESSIVE FORMS
Was or were (the past tense of to be) followed
by the -ing form of a verb is used in speaking
of an action as in progress at some time in the
past, as in he was telling his story and they were
walking home. This is called the progressive past
tense. It is also possible to speak of an :action
that was completed before some time in the past
as in progress. For this we use the word had
followed by been (the past participle of 10 be)
and the -ing form of the significant verb, as in
they had been walking home. This is called the
progressive past perfect. The same form can be
used in speaking of an habitual or repeatlsd action
in the past, as in he had been getting II/I at
five. What is seen in progress here is the custom
of getting up at five. In some contexts it may
be impossible to say whether it was the act or
the repetition that the speaker had in mind..
Until recently the progressive form was not
used with verbs that naturally express a continuing
action. This is no longer true. We may now
say, for example, Z was believing every word of
it and Z was trusting him.
In many European languages the present perfect
is used as a past tense and the functions of
the past tense are divided between the present
perfect and the true past, which is often called
the imperfect. Some European grammarians
transfer these distinctions to English and say
that the English simple past is equivalent to their
present perfect and the progressive past to their
imperfect. Statements of this kind often appear
in foreign language textbooks in this country, It
is true that the English progressive past can
359 pathetic fallacy
never be used to translate their present perfect,
but otherwise the distinction is misleading. The
simple past tense is used in speaking of any kind
of action in the past. It is used in speaking of
completed action, as in after he wrote the letter,
and of action that is in progress, as in as he
walked home. The perfect and progressive tenses
are merely refinements of the past tense and
express these ideas without the help of additional
words such as after and as. They are generally
preferred to the simple past because they express
these ideas more efficiently. The progressive
form is more immediate and more vivid than the
other forms. It is used to call attention to a
particular act and has the effect of slowing down
a narrative. The simple form is used to get on
with the story.
Each of the past tense forms that have been
discussed may also be expressed in the passive
voice. (See passive voice.) When the principal
verb in a sentence is in the past tense, the verb
in a subordinate clause must usually be shifted
to the simple past or past perfect. See tense
shifts.
PAST SUBJUNCTIVE
The simple past tense can be used in conditional
statements to refer indefinitely to the
present or the future, as in if he walked in tomorrow.
When a past tense is used with this
meaning it is a past subjunctive and not a past
indicative. (See subjunctive mode.) For all verbs
except to be the past subjunctive and the past
indicative have the same form and differ only
in meaning. In the past subjunctive of the verb
to be, the form were may be used as a plural or
as a singular, as in if Z were you. See was;
were.
In a conditional clause the subjunctive was
or were followed by a to-infinitive refers indefinitely
to the present or the future, as in if he
were to walk in. When not followed by a toinfinitive
it refers to the present only, as in if
he were here. A statement about the actual
present that must be expressed conditionally is
obviously contrary to the facts and the subjunctive
forms were and had are often used to show
this. That what is being spoken about is an
imaginary condition and not an existing state of
affairs can be shown without using the word if,
by placing were or had before the subject, as in
were Z you and had Z the wings of a dove. See
also can; could and shall; should.
A past tense verb may be used in an if clause
and still refer to the past, as in if he came yesterday.
This is a simple indicative statement about
a past fact. The if merely shows that the speaker
does not know what the fact was. If we want to
show that we are setting up a purely imaginary
condition we use the past perfect, as in if he had
come. Anything that is purely imaginary about
the past is, of course, contrary to the facts and
clauses of this kind are usually called “contraryto-fact”
conditions.
patent. See apparent.
pathetic fallacy. The pathetic fallacy is a phrase
coined by John Ruskin to describe the tendency