How to use the past?

[Ricardo187]

Hello everybody. I came across to this doubt and I can't help to realize the correct manner by myself.

What's correct?

"I've came across to a dirty road."

or

"I came across to a dirty road."

or even

"I've come across to a dirty road."

I have a hard time composing sentences in the past.

[Baburra]

"I came across a dirty road" is the most proper way to say it, I think.

The word "to" after "across" is unnecessary, if I'm not mistaken, but I'm not sure how to explain it from a technical standpoint. Hopefully some of our more technically knowledgeable members could chime in. Good luck!

[Daedalus]

"I came across..." and "I have come across..." are both correct. Which one to use depends on the context. The first is known as the 'simple past' tense, and the latter is the 'perfect past'.

[pandandesign]

The second and third sentences are grammatically correct. I think the second sentence is what most people would use to write or speak. The "across", by the way, when you use in a sentence, you can omit the "to" word after "across". That way the sentence makes more sense.

[Ricardo187]

Thanks everybody for your answers. It really helped me on my english improvement plan. I aim at improvement on almost everything I do in life and my english skills are one of those things.

[ddrmario123]

So this might also help you out when composing sentences. The reason you don't use "to" right after "across" is because both of those words are prepositions. A preposition is in the English Parts of Speech including similar types like nouns, verbs, adjectives, and so on. But anyways, you don't use two prepositions right after the other.

For example you CANNOT do "He was under above the dog." Both "under" and "above" are prepositions but, also, both of these words are complete opposites in meaning.

[MyDigitalpoint]

One common mistake that one makes when learning a second language is trying to find the correct past (present or future) form of a given phrase.

However the practice and listening to native speakers will teach you that same way you use different past forms in your own language that have the same meaning and ultimately are all of them correct, similarly English is not a fixed language with a one and only way to express a phrase regardless the verb tense.