The more I try to make life enjoyable for myself, the more I think about it.
This can be either a verb tense (which emphasizes a particular action began in the past) or a participle (which emphasizes a particular action began in the past). For instance, I might say, “I finished my last book”, or “I made a call that started in the past”, because when you think about it, writing a book or making a phone call started in the past.
If I can’t remember the past tense, maybe I should say something about what happened to me in the past. If you think about the past tense, I’m probably going to say I had a hard time remembering things.
The past tense uses the past participle form of the verb. So, if I say I finished writing a book, I would say I finished writing a book in the past tense. Which means I did write a book, I did make a phone call, and I did finish writing a book. I probably should say something about what happened to me in the past.
I have a hard time remembering things. I can remember a lot of things, but I get a lot of blank spots in my head.
You might want to think about that. I often use the past tense, especially to refer to things that happened in the past. When I say I finished writing a book, I am referring to that book in the past tense. Whereas when I say I finished writing a phone call, I am referring to a phone call that happened in the past tense.
So we’ve got two verbs that are used with past tense, and one that we use for present tense (what happened in the past). I can think of two reasons to use past tense when speaking of an action that happened in the past. First, we can use past tense to avoid confusing future and present tense with past tense. If you have a future-oriented conversation about something, it doesn’t make sense to use the present tense to describe the past action.
In many cases, the past tense may be appropriate, but there are a few situations where the present tense is more appropriate. For example, if you are describing an action that happened in the past, but only for a short period of time, then the present tense is the best choice. If you are describing an action that happened in the past that lasted for a longer time, then present tense is the best choice.
This is a great example of this. As soon as I read, “I ate a whole chicken in the microwave,” I knew I was right about using the present tense. In the microwave, I was eating a chicken. The chicken was still alive. It was still alive and moving. It was still alive and moving inside of the microwave. I ate a chicken in the microwave and it died.
When you speak of an action that started in the past, it is best to use the past tense. Otherwise the past tense is a dead giveaway that you were talking about an action that happened in the past.
