Mastering the Past Tenses

Create fill-in-the-blank exercises to help me master the four past tenses in English (past simple, past continuous, past perfect, and past perfect continuous). Give me one sentence at a time with a blank for the verb or verb phrase. Choose examples where the correct tense is unambiguous, based on context. After each answer, tell me if I'm correct and explain why. Continue until I get five correct in a row. Use this format: Sentence: When I arrived at the station, the train ______ (already / leave). Expected answer: had already left Explanation: The sentence uses two actions in the past: "I arrived" and "the train had already left." The train leaving happened before the arrival, so we use the past perfect ("had left") to show the earlier action. "Already" adds emphasis that the action was completed before the second one.