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Basic Clause Patterns

Past tense meanings
The basic meaning of the past tense is very simple. It indicates only that
something was the case in the past, that is, before “now.” If I say John was
in his room, then I am claiming that the description John is in his room held
in the past. It says nothing about whether John is still in his room; he may
or may not be, as can be seen from the fact that the sentence above can be
followed by either and he’s still there or but he’s not there now.
The situation represented as occurring in the past may involve a single
point of time (1a), repetition of events (1b, c), a period of time (1d), or a
state (1e), respectively:

(1) a. The clock struck one.
b. The clock chimed twelve times.
c. We visited each other every weekend.
d. The noise droned on and on.
e. For many years Chris owned a Ferrari.

The past tense is compatible with completed situations and, indeed,
many past tense sentences do denote situations that ended in the past. The
suggestion that the situation was completed in the past is due to a number
of factors, but not to the past tense form itself. For example, if the event
was instantaneous, as in The balloon burst, or if the event has a natural
culmination, such as I wrote a poem, He fell asleep, or He read the book, the
situations will be interpreted as completed. Adverbials can be added to in-
dicate specific lengths of time, for three hours, or a particular period of time,
yesterday, or at a particular time, at midnight.
To indicate that an activity occurred regularly or repeatedly in the past,
we can use adverbials that denote repetition, e.g., I walked to school every
day. Generally, though not necessarily, this will be interpreted to mean that
I no longer walk to school. If we wish to indicate the period during which
these walks took place we can add an adverbial denoting a period of time,
e.g., as a child. If the situation continues through the time of utterance, we
can add an adverbial to that effect, e.g., as I do to this day.
In texts it is not unusual for a time to be established early, and if that time
is in the past, then succeeding clauses are likely to be in the past tense. For
example, in the following text the first sentence establishes the 19th century
as the time reference; as a result, the verb (bolded) in each succeeding clause
is in the past tense: