GLOSSARY

At first sight things seem to be very simple: when talking about something that happened in the past we can simply say I checked my mail. However, there is more to it. Consider the following four sentences:

1. I have checked my mail. There’s nothing important.

2. I checked my mail when the client came.

3. I was checking my mail when the client came.

4. I had checked my mail when the client came.

This time the situation is even more complex than with present: here we have four different tenses for something that could be translated into Croatian as Provjerio/la sam or provjeravao/la sam poštu. You might ask yourself if there really is a difference.

Let us see what the difference is and why we have to use different tenses for past events.

I have checked my mail. There’s nothing important.

I checked my mail five minutes ago.

How many of your English lessons may have been spent on futile attempts to make you use I have checked it? Moreover, when speaking, this form still rarely crosses your lips. And again, non-native speakers seem to agree that they can live perfectly well without it. However, those of us who aspire to perfection should maybe give one more try to understanding the logic behind the choice of I have checked, over the simple I checked. In the first example the focus is on the result of an activity which has happened at an indefinite past time. When is irrelevant here but what matters is that NOW we know there are no important mails to deal with. However, if you want to draw your colleague’s attention to the fact that you are absolutely sure there is nothing important to deal with because you checked the mail only five minutes ago you will stress exactly WHEN you did it by saying I checked it five minutes ago.

The sentence I was checking my mail when the client came, just wants to indicate that my work was in progress and was interrupted by the entry of the client. On the other hand, you should choose I checked, for the activity that completed and we see it as finished regardless of for how long it might have continued. In the sentence I checked my mail when the client came, one action followed the other: the client came and then I remembered the mail he sent me (not good). In the sentence I was checking my mail when the client came, the client just came too early while I was still checking my mail (he interrupted me when I was in the middle of my activity and making a really good progress). In the sentence I had checked my mail when the client came, we are saying that the mail had already been checked well before the client came and you can now talk to him without wondering whether there is something urgent in your mailbox.

| Past Simple | activities completed at a definite past time | They signed the contract last month. |

| Past Continuous | activities in progress around a point in past | They were signing the contract when I called. |

| Present Perfect Simple | present result of activities happening at indefinite past time | They have just signed the contract. |

| Past Perfect | activities which happened before some other past activity | They had signed the contract and told me about their decision a minute ago. |