过去时 is a tense category that exists in English, French, Spanish, etc. — but Chinese is famously tenseless. Mandarin handles past time through the aspect particle
了 (le, completed action), the experiential
过 (guo), and time adverbs like
昨天 /
去年. Beware: Chinese textbooks for English learners use
一般过去时 (simple past),
过去进行时 (past continuous),
过去完成时 (past perfect).
