past tense meaning

WPast tense

The past tense is a grammatical tense whose principal function is to place an action or situation in past time.
In some languages, the grammatical expression of past tense is combined with the expression of other categories such as mood and aspect (see tense–aspect–mood).
Some languages that grammaticalise for past tense do so by inflecting the verb, while others do so periphrastically using auxiliary verbs, also known as "verbal operators" (and some do both, as in the example of French given above).

Definition of past tense in English Dictionary

NounPLpast tenses
1. (grammar) Past tense is the form of language used to refer to an event, transaction, or occurrence that did happen or has happened, or an object that existed, at a point in time before now. Compare with present tense, which refers to an event, transaction or occurrence which is happening now (or at the present time), or an object that currently exists; or with future tense, which refers to an event, transaction or occurrence that has not yet happened, is expected to happen in the future, or might never happen.
  1. "Has the #5 bus arrived?" "Yeah, you missed it." (past tense)
  2. "The bus is too far away. I can’t make it." (present tense)
  3. "I saw the #5 bus across the street. I won’t make it." (future tense)
More Examples
1. Used in the Middle of Sentence
  - A child familiar with past tenses formed with "-ed" overregularizes by saying "goed" instead of "went".