Learn English – Simple Past Tense for duration of time

grammarsimple-past

This is an example of simple past usage I stumbled upon on YouTube:

"Sarah and David talked for two hours"

It is not clear to me why present perfect or past continues are not used here instead of past simple or can all of these tenses be used correctly? "For two hours" specifies a duration of time and "for" is also a signal word used in present perfect tense and past continues tense. I thought past simple is used for finished actions, but in this example, the action was in progress. So why is this sentence correct?

Best Answer

We use for + duration in different tenses :

  • Sarah and David talk for two hours daily. (Regular habit).

  • Sarah and David have talked for two hours. (They have just completed their talking.)

  • Sarah and David talked for two hours. (Their talking ended in the past.)

  • Sarah and David were talking for two hours. (They were talking for two hours and it ended in the past.)

  • Sarah and David had been talking for two hours before I came (or, when I came). (to say how long they had been talking up to a past moment.)

  • Sarah and David will not talk for the next ten days. (They won't talk for a period in future.)

*** But to measure "DURATION UP TO THE PRESENT", we use a present perfect tense :

  • Sarah and David have been talking for two hours. (It means their talking started in the past and is still going on.)
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