अगर आपने Present Tense पढ़ लिया है, तो अब बारी है Past Tense की। Past Tense वह tense है जो हम बीती हुई बातें बताने के लिए use करते हैं — कल क्या हुआ, पहले क्या होता था, कब तक क्या चल रहा था। Class 6 से 12 तक हर exam में यह topic ज़रूर आता है, इसलिए इसे एक बार ठीक से समझ लेना बहुत ज़रूरी है।
Past Tense के 4 Types — एक नज़र में
- Simple Past Tense — बीते समय में पूरा हुआ काम
- Past Continuous Tense — बीते समय में चल रहा काम
- Past Perfect Tense — दो past events में से जो पहले हुआ
- Past Perfect Continuous Tense — बीते समय में कुछ देर से चल रहा काम
1. Simple Past Tense
Simple Past Tense का use तब होता है जब कोई काम बीते हुए किसी निश्चित समय में पूरा हो गया हो — और अब उसका present से कोई direct connection नहीं है।
जैसे — उसने खाना खाया। मैं कल स्कूल गया। वह रोज़ यहाँ आता था।
Structure (Formula)
- Affirmative: Subject + V2 (Past form) + Object
- Negative: Subject + did + not + V1 + Object
- Interrogative: Did + Subject + V1 + Object?
❌ She did not went. → ✅ She did not go. (did के बाद V1)
Regular vs Irregular Verbs
Past Tense में verbs दो तरह की होती हैं:
- Regular Verbs — V2 बनाने के लिए सिर्फ ed / d लगाएं — जैसे: play→played, walk→walked, love→loved, stop→stopped
- Irregular Verbs — इनका V2 अलग होता है, याद करना पड़ता है — जैसे: go→went, eat→ate, write→wrote, buy→bought, see→saw, take→took
Regular Verb में ed लगाने के Rules
- Verb के अंत में e हो → सिर्फ d लगाएं — love→loved, dance→danced
- Verb consonant + y पर खत्म हो → y को i में बदलकर ed — carry→carried, study→studied
- Short verb CVC pattern में हो → last consonant double करके ed — stop→stopped, plan→planned, drop→dropped
- बाकी सभी → सीधे ed — walk→walked, play→played, clean→cleaned
Examples
✅ She visited her grandmother last Sunday.
✅ They played football in the evening.
✅ He did not come to school yesterday.
✅ Did you finish your homework?
❌ She did not visited her grandmother. (did के बाद V1 — visit)
❌ They was played football. (Simple Past में was/were नहीं लगता)
Simple Past के साथ आने वाले Keywords
- yesterday, last night, last week, last year
- ago — 2 days ago, 3 years ago
- in + year — in 2019, in 1947
- once, one day, the other day
- when I was a child / in those days
2. Past Continuous Tense
Past Continuous Tense का use तब होता है जब कोई काम बीते हुए किसी specific time पर चल रहा था — वह काम उस समय अभी पूरा नहीं हुआ था, जारी था।
जैसे — वह सो रहा था। बच्चे खेल रहे थे। मैं पढ़ रही थी।
Structure (Formula)
- Affirmative: Subject + was/were + V1+ing + Object
- Negative: Subject + was/were + not + V1+ing + Object
- Interrogative: Was/Were + Subject + V1+ing + Object?
— I / He / She / It (singular) → was
— You / We / They (plural) → were
Examples
✅ I was reading a book when he called.
✅ They were playing cricket at 5 PM yesterday.
✅ She was not sleeping at that time.
✅ Were you watching TV last night?
❌ I was read a book. (was के बाद V+ing — reading)
❌ They was playing cricket. (They के साथ were आएगा)
Past Continuous के Special Uses
- Background action: जब एक longer action चल रही हो और उसे दूसरी shorter action interrupt करे —
I was sleeping when the phone rang. (सोना = longer; phone बजना = shorter interrupt) - Two parallel actions: दो काम एक साथ चल रहे हों —
She was cooking while he was washing the dishes. - Specific past time: At 8 PM last night, I was studying.
— when → अचानक हुई shorter action के साथ — when he arrived
— while → साथ-साथ चल रही longer action के साथ — while I was cooking
3. Past Perfect Tense
Past Perfect Tense का use तब होता है जब past में दो काम हुए हों, और हम यह बताना चाहें कि कौन सा काम पहले हुआ। जो काम पहले हुआ — उसके लिए Past Perfect use होता है।
जैसे — जब वह आया, तब मैं खाना खा चुका था। Train जाने से पहले वह स्टेशन पहुँच चुकी थी।
Structure (Formula)
- Affirmative: Subject + had + V3 (Past Participle) + Object
- Negative: Subject + had + not + V3 + Object
- Interrogative: Had + Subject + V3 + Object?
Examples
✅ When I reached the station, the train had already left.
✅ She had finished her work before her boss arrived.
✅ They had never seen snow before they visited Shimla.
✅ Had he eaten anything before the meeting?
❌ When I reached, the train already left. (पहले हुए काम के लिए had + V3 ज़रूरी है)
❌ She had finish her work. (had के बाद V3 — finished)
Past Perfect को कैसे पहचानें?
जब sentence में before, after, when, as soon as, by the time जैसे words हों और दो actions हों — तो पहले वाली action के लिए Past Perfect use करें।
- After he had eaten, he went to sleep. (पहले खाया, फिर सोया)
- By the time she arrived, we had already started.
- I had never travelled by plane before that trip.
4. Past Perfect Continuous Tense
Past Perfect Continuous Tense का use तब होता है जब कोई काम past में कुछ समय से चल रहा था और फिर past के किसी दूसरे point पर आकर रुका या relevant हुआ।
जैसे — वह 2 घंटे से पढ़ रहा था जब light गई। मैं सुबह से काम कर रही थी।
Structure (Formula)
- Affirmative: Subject + had + been + V1+ing + Object + for/since + time
- Negative: Subject + had + not + been + V1+ing + Object
- Interrogative: Had + Subject + been + V1+ing + Object?
Examples
✅ I had been waiting for two hours when he finally came.
✅ She had been working at that company since 2015 before she resigned.
✅ They had been playing for an hour when it started raining.
✅ Had you been sleeping when I called?
❌ I had been wait for two hours. (been के बाद V+ing — waiting)
❌ She had been worked there. (been के बाद V+ing — working, V3 नहीं)
— He had read the book. → वह किताब पढ़ चुका था। (काम पूरा हो गया था)
— He had been reading for 3 hours. → वह 3 घंटे से पढ़ रहा था। (काम कुछ देर से चल रहा था)
चारों Tenses की तुलना — एक साथ देखें
एक ही subject से चारों Past Tenses समझते हैं — subject: Rahul / cricket खेलना:
- Simple Past: Rahul played cricket yesterday. (कल खेला — पूरा हो गया)
- Past Continuous: Rahul was playing cricket at 4 PM. (उस वक्त खेल रहा था)
- Past Perfect: Rahul had played cricket before it rained. (बारिश से पहले खेल चुका था)
- Past Perfect Continuous: Rahul had been playing cricket for 2 hours when it rained. (2 घंटे से खेल रहा था जब बारिश आई)
- आ / गया / किया / ता था / ती थी → Simple Past
- रहा था / रही थी / रहे थे (without time duration) → Past Continuous
- चुका था / लिया था / दिया था → Past Perfect
- रहा था + कितने समय से / कब से → Past Perfect Continuous
V1 / V2 / V3 — क्या होता है?
Past Tense में V2 और V3 बहुत ज़रूरी हैं। यहाँ कुछ most common irregular verbs की list है जो exams में अक्सर काम आती है:
- go → went → gone
- come → came → come
- eat → ate → eaten
- write → wrote → written
- see → saw → seen
- take → took → taken
- give → gave → given
- buy → bought → bought
- think → thought → thought
- speak → spoke → spoken
- break → broke → broken
- know → knew → known
- run → ran → run
- begin → began → begun
- sing → sang → sung
- drink → drank → drunk
- swim → swam → swum
- sit → sat → sat
- stand → stood → stood
- make → made → made
Exam में अक्सर पूछी जाने वाली गलतियाँ
❌ I did not went to school. → did के बाद V1 आता है
✅ I did not go to school.
❌ She was went to the market. → was/were के बाद V+ing आता है
✅ She went to the market. / She was going to the market.
❌ He had went there. → had के बाद V3 — gone
✅ He had gone there.
❌ They were knowing each other. → know = stative verb, continuous में use नहीं होता
✅ They knew each other.
❌ She had been worked here for 5 years. → been के बाद V+ing — working
✅ She had been working here for 5 years.
❌ When I came, he already left. → पहले हुई action के लिए Past Perfect
✅ When I came, he had already left.
Summary / निष्कर्ष
Past Tense को ठीक से समझना मतलब आपकी English का आधा grammar strong हो जाना। Present और Past Tense दोनों मिलकर English के सबसे ज़रूरी building blocks बनाते हैं।
- Simple Past — बीते समय का पूरा हुआ काम। Formula: S + V2
- Past Continuous — बीते समय में चल रहा काम। Formula: S + was/were + V+ing
- Past Perfect — दो past events में पहले हुआ काम। Formula: S + had + V3
- Past Perfect Continuous — past में कुछ समय से चल रहा काम। Formula: S + had + been + V+ing
- Regular और Irregular Verbs का फर्क और common V2/V3 list
- Common exam mistakes और उनके corrections