AEE 2394: How to Know Which Past Tense to Use in English
2025/4/21
All Ears English Podcast
A
Aubrey Carter
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Lindsay McMahon
Aubrey Carter: 我最近带孩子们看了很多电影，主要是因为我们买了一个无限续杯的爆米花桶，想物尽其用。昨天我们还看了《白雪公主》，大家都非常喜欢，这让我很惊讶，因为这部电影的评价很低。但我个人很喜欢这部电影，我认为它很好地现代化了白雪公主的故事，并去除了一些原版中存在的问题。所以，我建议大家去看一看，自己感受一下。
Lindsay McMahon: 今天我们来聊聊英语语法中的过去时态。你刚才说你带孩子们看了很多电影，用的是现在完成进行时；而我说我们看了《白雪公主》，用的是一般过去时。这说明在英语口语中，我们很少在一个句子中只使用一种时态，经常在不同时态之间切换。这使得过去时态的学习变得复杂，但也更贴近真实英语的表达方式。我们很少会像教科书那样严格地遵循时态规则，而是根据语境灵活运用。
Helmut: 我在学习英语过去时态时遇到了困难，难以区分一般过去时、现在完成时和现在完成进行时，尤其是在这些时态与现在无关的情况下。例如，我说'我跟她谈过话'，可以用一般过去时，也可以用现在完成时，甚至现在完成进行时，我不明白该用哪个。如果谈话的结果对现在有影响，例如她答应改变行为，那该用哪个时态呢？如果谈话没有完成，例如我们明天还要继续谈，那又该用哪个时态呢？德语中没有这么复杂的过去时态系统，这让我很困惑。
Lindsay McMahon: 其实，选择过去时态时，有两个主要的情况。第一种情况是，如果时间对表达的信息不重要，那么可以使用任何一种过去时态，母语人士经常混用。第二种情况是，如果时间对表达的信息很重要，那么选择哪种过去时态就至关重要。例如，如果有人问你'你跟她谈过几次话？'，那么你就要根据实际情况选择合适的时态。一般过去时用于表达过去某个特定时间发生的已完成的动作；现在完成时用于表达过去发生过多次的动作，并且可能还会继续发生；现在完成进行时用于强调动作的持续性。
Aubrey Carter: 在日常对话中，我们经常会根据语境灵活运用过去时态，有时甚至会混用不同的时态，这并不一定是错误的。关键在于，我们要根据语境判断过去时态的选择是否重要。如果细节不重要，可以选择任何一种过去时态；如果细节重要，则必须选择正确的过去时态，以确保表达的清晰准确。
supporting_evidences
Aubrey Carter: 'And we watched Snow White yesterday and we all loved it, which was especially surprising because it's been rated and reviewed really low. So my expectations were, but I was surprised. I loved it so much. It's crazy to me that anyone reviewed it low. So then I kind of dove into like why people are reviewing it. And I really disagree with everything they're saying about the movie. So everybody out there listening, go check it out in defense.'
Lindsay McMahon: 'So today we're getting into a little grammar. And what you said there, Aubrey, was I have been going to a lot of movies. Right. So we have the past perfect progressive here. And then I said we watched Snow White. So that's past simple. And that's good to point out that we rarely stick with one verb tense in a sentence. And sometimes we have flexibility because I could say I've gone to I have gone to a lot of movies and just used past perfect there. I could also have used past simple like there's often flexibility.'
Lindsay McMahon: 'flexibility, this makes verb tenses really tricky. But it also makes it real. You know, I've been reviewing some of our transcripts from our professional English course, and it's incredible how real our interviews with native speakers are, right? It doesn't follow the textbooks, right? What we said in these conversations, we're always moving from one tense to the other in this way that doesn't feel like it would be covered in a textbook, but it's real English. Because it's not scripted. It's how we actually speak.'
Helmut: 'I'm trying to figure out when to use the correct past tense and I'm unsure when to use past simple, present perfect, and present perfect continuous. For example, I talked to her. I've talked to her anytime in the past and it has no relevant to the present. no relevance to the present. But why should I say that? And in what case should I say that? That makes no sense, right? Aubrey, why don't you read the next piece so that it's not just me reading. I've talked to her. It's like I have talked to her. I have talked to her in the past. The process is completely finished, but it has relevance to the present.'
Helmut: 'I have talked to her and she promised me she will change her behavior. Is the simple past in this case generally the wrong tense? Because why should I say that when it has no influence on the present? I have been talking to her. I've talked to her in the past, but the result is not finished.'
Helmut: 'I have been talking to her about the project and we will finish it tomorrow. It's very confusing because we do not have these tenses in German. Oh, it's such a good question. This has been tricky for me learning French and Spanish because we can't translate directly. We see that the verb tenses work differently in different languages and we need to understand. You guys see that English language users often are very flexible with this. You see them use two different ones for the same situation or two native speakers will do it differently. Is it a mistake? Is it not? There's probably more flexibility than textbooks teach you.'
Lindsay McMahon: 'Now we get to the second bucket because when it is important to the story, which past tense you choose matters. And often what will happen is you'll be telling a story and you'll use whatever verb tense you want. But then if someone does, suddenly it does matter because someone asks a specific question like, wait, when did you talk to her? Or how many times did you talk to her? Then you're going to need to use the correct tense to be clear about what happened.'
Lindsay McMahon: 'Yeah, past tense is especially confusing in English because sometimes you can choose any of them, any of these verb tenses. It makes it difficult to know exactly why native speakers are using a specific past tense. I totally get why Heli, Helmut, was confused seeing the flexibility here. So today's tips will help you know which past tense to use in English.'
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