You can find more of Rackham’s illustrations here. Past, present, and future ways to use it all lie with how the sentence you’re reading or writing is presented.The images in this post are selected from Arthur Rackham’s illustrations for “Rip van Winkle.” This story, with its playful treatment of time, is a worthy accompaniment for a discussion of tense.

There are countless examples in the English language on ways to use it. The past tense of read isn’t always going to be obvious. Ultimately, the best way to learn is to practice. (past simple) “Yesterday, he read his assignment.”.(Past simple) “She will read the label in an hour.”.(Past tense) “She will read the label.”.(Past simple) “I did read it last year.”.Here are multiple examples of the difference between “read” past tense and “read” past simple. Shortening the sentence to “I have read my book.” would have left it simply past tense and unclear onto when the book was read. The word “yesterday” is an adverbial phrase for showing at what point it happened, making the sentence itself past simple. Read past simple is typically used with an adverbial phrase that indeed specifies when something happened and pinpoints how recent it was. “Read(red)” is past tense but it doesn’t clarify when exactly it took place, only that it happened already. Past simple verbs, also known as simple past tense or preterite, describe an action that occurred at a specific point in the past. (read past tense) “He did his reading for every chapter.”.(read present tense) “He is reading every chapter.”.(read past tense) “I have read a lot of books.”.(read present tense) “I read a lot of books.”.Here are some examples between “read” present tense and “read” past tense. If “read” is next to a word that is already past tense, it does not have to be past tense itself.” Essentially, it’s all about which word does which job. This is unlike the sentence “I have read” where the word “have” is not necessarily past tense until it shows next to the past tense form of “read”. In this instance, “read” is being pronounced as “reed” because the word behind it, “did”, is already acting as a past tense word. However, pronouncing “read” as “reed” may also be used as past tense when the word it’s next to is past tense first. When telling the sentence “I have read”, “read” is pronounced as “red”. The two ways to pronounce “read” are shown below. The tricky part is determining which words can change the meaning and in what way. It’s no longer generalize or assumed to be continuing. Now when you look at the phrase “I have read”, it clearly means the subject was reading something before and likely completed it already. “Have” is being used here as past tense, thereby changing the pronunciation and definition of “read”. Adding the word “have” changes the meaning of the sentence almost entirely.

However, observe what it says in “I have read”. Either we gather it’s being done now, or it’s a hobby the subject is occasionally enjoying on several moments in time. It’s generalized into a current or casual moment.

When you look at the two sentences, notice the difference in meaning?Īlmost automatically the short phrase “I read” portrays the action as being done here and now. There is a clear distinction between the sentences “I read” and “I have read”. Readjusting the sentence used around “read” will swiftly impact the meaning behind the word entirely. Despite the lack of suffixes, “read” does share a similarity with the other past tense words.

To read past tense