Past tense

Past tense is a grammatical tense that locates an event or state before the time of speaking or another reference point. Languages express it through verb forms, particles, or other grammatical constructions.

Grammatical tense: A grammatical system that locates events in time relative to a reference point. Past tense is one value in this broader system of temporal location.
Inflection: A change in a word's form that expresses grammatical features such as tense, number, or case. Many languages mark past tense by changing the verb itself.
Present tense: A grammatical tense that commonly locates an event or state at or around a present reference time. It contrasts with past tense in its usual relation to the time of speaking.
Narrative past: Past-tense usage that presents events as part of a narrative sequence. It is a central way to recount events as preceding the current moment.
Deixis: The linguistic use of context to identify entities, times, places, or discourse roles. The speaking moment often supplies the reference point for interpreting past tense.
Auxiliary verb: A verb that combines with another verb to express grammatical or semantic information. English uses “have” and “be” in past-related constructions such as the present perfect and past progressive.
Future tense: A grammatical tense or construction that locates an event after a reference time. It marks temporal location after the reference point, unlike the usual past-tense relation.
Reported speech: The representation of speech or thought within another utterance. Reporting clauses often shift verb forms into the past under sequence-of-tenses patterns.
Reference time: The time relative to which an event's temporal position is understood. Some past forms locate an event before a point already established by the discourse.
Tense–aspect–mood: A grammatical domain encompassing the expression of time, event structure, and speaker stance. Past-tense marking often interacts with aspect and mood within the same verb construction.

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