Lesson 4: Grammar

Lesson Video

Competence (MLC)

At the end of the lesson, you will be able to:

4.1 Tense

Reviewing Present Perfect, Simple Past, and Past Perfect

Simple past tense:

(Subject + past tense verb)

• Is used to describe past actions or events that do not have any sort of relationship with the present situations.
• Describes actions completed at a specific time in the past.
• This is often used with time expressions (e.g., yesterday, last year/month/week, in 2025, etc).

Present perfect tense:

(Subject + have/has + past participle)

• Is used to describe an action that started in the past and is still going on at the time of speaking or stopped right at the time of speaking

• Describes actions that happened at an unspecified time in the past but are still relevant now.
• Talks about life experiences, recent events, or changes.
• Often used with: just, already, yet, ever, never, since, for

Past perfect tense:

(Subject + had + past participle)

• Is used to describe an action that happened earlier before the subsequent past action. Due to this, this tense is sometimes called the “before” tense. Using the prepositions at, in or of.

• Describes an action that happened before another action in the past.
• Helps clarify sequence of past events.

Examples:

Simple Past Tense

1. She walked to the store yesterday.
2. They watched a movie last night.
3. He finished his homework an hour ago.
4. I visited my grandparents last weekend.
5. The company launched the new product last year.

Present Perfect Tense

1. She has walked to the store today.
2. They have watched that movie before.
3. He has finished his homework already.
4. I have visited my grandparents several times.
5. The company has launched many successful products.

Past Perfect Tense

1. She had walked to the store before it started raining.
2. They had watched the movie before it was removed from theaters.
3. He had finished his homework before dinner.
4. I had visited my grandparents before they moved to a new house.
5. The company had launched the new product before their competitors.

These examples cover a variety of contexts and show how each tense functions differently in terms of timing and sequence.

Study the following short examples to notice the difference among the past simple, present perfect, & past perfect tenses.

• Past Simple: I finished my homework last night.
• Present Perfect: I have finished my homework. (It’s done now)

Past Perfect: I had finished my homework before my friends came over

  Using different prepositions

• We use “at” when we are talking about a specific time of day, or event like breakfast time, Easter, night, Easter Holiday, Christmas, scene, etc
• We use “in” to describe a more general period of time that does not have a specific clock time or time of day. Example, early in the morning, in the middle of the period, in summer season, in 1959, in trouble, in problem,

Here’s a table with examples of sentences using the prepositions “at,” “in,” “on,” and “of”:

Preposition	Example Sentence	Usage Explanation
At	She is at the office.	Used for specific locations or points in time.
	We will meet at 3 PM.	Indicates a precise time or place.
In	He lives in New York.	Used for enclosed spaces or general locations.
	They are in the park.	Indicates being inside or within something.
On	The book is on the table.	Used for surfaces or specific days.
	We will go on Monday.	Indicates a surface or a day/date.
Of	She is the CEO of the company.	Used to show belonging or a relationship between things.
	The color of the car is red.	Indicates possession or a characteristic.

Here’s a table with examples of words and phrases commonly used with “in,” “at,” and “on.”

Preposition	Words/Phrases
In	in the morning, in the park, in the car, in a book, in July, in the city
At	at 5 PM, at the station, at the office, at a concert, at the door, at lunch
On	on Monday, on the table, on the wall, on a plane, on TV, on the weekend

Adverb Clauses of Purpose

A clause of purpose is used to tell you about the purpose of the verb in the main clause. It is introduced by the subordinating conjunctions such as that, so that, in order that, in order to, to, for fear that and lest.