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As with the present tense, there are four forms that make up the past tense. The past simple follows the structure of subject + base form verb + ed or d; the question and negative forms includes the words "did" or "did not" respectively. The past simple is used to communicate past action in a given time. The emphasis is that the action has been completed whether or not the time was mentioned. The past continuous follows the form subject + was/were + verb+ing. The past continuous is used to describe a continuous action that took place in the past. For example, "I was dreaming of you yesterday", where the continuous action is "dreaming" and at this point it started and ended in the past. The past perfect takes the form of subject + had + past participle. The past perfect illustrates an action that occurred prior to other past actions. It can be thought of as the past in the past. For example, "I had eaten before you came over", where "you came over" was a past action, and "I had eaten" happened prior. The past perfect continuous takes the form of subject + had + been + verb+ing. This form needs all of these parts to function as it has a specific purpose of explaining an action or situation which occurred in the past and had been continuously ongoing up to the point, in the past, we are thinking about. For example, "I had been worrying all night until he called" where "worrying" is the continuous action that I had been doing until the point where he called. Another example would be "She had been sleeping until the dogs started barking", where the barking dogs are the marking point in the past that stopped the continuous action of her sleeping.