B. The Past Tense in English is used to talk about the past: There are four past tense forms in English:
a. Past simple (e.g. I worked.)
b. Past continuous (e.g. I was working.)
c. Past perfect (e.g. I had worked.)
d. Past perfect continuous (e.g. I had been working.)
B1. We use these forms:
a. to talk about the past. (e.g. He worked at the comapny. He had worked there since July.)
b. to refer to the present or future in conditions (e.g. He could get a new job if he really tried.) and hypotheses (e.g. It might be dangerous. Suppose they got lost.), and wishes. (e.g. I wish it wasn’t so cold.)
c. In conditions, hypotheses and wishes, if we want to talk about the past, we always use the past perfect. (e.g. I would have helped him if he had asked.)
d. We can use the past forms to talk about the present in a few polite expressions. (e.g. Excuse me, I was wondering if this was the train for York.)
B2. The future in the past: when we talk about the future from a time in the past we use:
a. ‘would’ as the past tense of will. (e.g. He thought he would buy one the next day.)
b. ‘was/were going to’ (e.g. John was going to drive and Mary was going to follow on her bicycle.)
c. the Past Continuous (e.g. It was September. Mary was starting school the next week.)
Idiom 365
don't look a gift horse in the mouth: do not complain or refuse if a gift is not perfect; take what you've been given without criticism or emphasis on its worth
Example: It's not the job what we expected but it will pay good money. We should not look a gift horse in the mouth.