Past tenses

[user1496668552]

I need help with some homework for my kid. He needs to write a sentence which expresses the past tense for 'running'. Would it be:

1. He ran to the shops and fell over.
   
2. He was running to the shops, when he fell.
   
   Or are they both past tense?
   
   Thank you for any help.

[MrsKCastle]

Either should be acceptable. Which year group is he? I would probably go for the second on the basis that if they wanted 'ran' they would have used 'run' in the question.

[user1496668552]

He's in year 5.

Thank you for helping. I was really unsure.

[Laura0806]

I think the top one is the past and the second the past perfect so both correct-I think they are expected to know both-its certainly in the SPAG at the end of year 6

[Anotheroneishere]

"Ran" is an example of simple past tense. It's likely what the assignment is looking for.

While "was running" is indeed a past tense of "run" (past continuous -- past perfect is "had run"), I'd be worried a teacher would see "was" as the past tense of the verb "to be" rather than correctly acknowledging that the whole verb was "was running."

English is incredibly fiddly with verb tenses relative to other languages.

[Anotheroneishere]

Oh, I see the assignment asked for the past tense of "running."

That's terribly confusing. "Running" in that form is a noun, i.e. running is my favorite thing to do.

I might give up and write both, with the additional simple past and continuous past qualifications.