Grammar: Past Tenses and Neither/Either

Class 6 English · Chapter 4: The Unlikely Best Friends · NCERT Poorvi section pp. 48–49

Learn

Stories usually tell what happened before, so they use the past tense. There are three common forms. Simple past: the action happened and is finished; usually verb + -d/-ed (looked, noticed, served) or a special form (gave, went, told, felt, threw).

Past progressive: the action was going on at some time in the past: I/he/she/it was + verb-ing; we/you/they were + verb-ing. "Gajaraj was munching his food." "The farmer was looking for his dog."

Past perfect: the action was completed before another past action: had + third form. "The king had ordered that the elephant be well looked after." "The farmer had tied Buntee with a rope the day before." "By the time the mahout returned, the food had remained untouched."

Neither … nor joins two negatives: "Neither the farmer nor the mahout noticed the friends' tears" (both did not notice). Either … or gives a choice between two: "Rohit wants to play either cricket or kho-kho."

Explore: sort the verbs by past tense.

1. Sort each verb.

Remember

• Simple past (looked, gave); past progressive (was/were + -ing); past perfect (had + third form).
• Neither … nor joins two negatives; either … or offers a choice.

Quick check

"He ____ Buntee with a rope the day before." Choose the past perfect.

1. had tied
2. was tying
3. ties
4. tie

Think about it

Write two sentences about yesterday: one in the past progressive and one in the past perfect.

Practice

Practise with fresh questions at three levels (easy, medium, hard), some answered hands-on, with hints and worked answers. Get 4 of your last 5 right to finish the topic.