Converse of object

• reconstruct: Add some other sources and give them an insight into the way that ' real ' historians reconstruct the past.

• forget: I added that even if I could forget the past I would not do so.

Adjective modifier

• distant: Naturally gloves originate in the dim and distant past.

• recent: Enlargement's great success in the recent past leads us to some hard policy conclusions.

• illustrious: The ambiance of the 2005 Ball will evoke our illustrious past, making full use of the college's stunning architecture.

• glorious: The hotel Das Tyrol is beautifully positioned in time and location, between Vienna's glorious past and its energetic present.

• turbulent: Rub shoulders with an Iron Age family or encounter a bloodthirsty Roman soldier and other figures from the turbulent past.

• troubled: Yet today this deeply troubled past has been forgotten as if it never happened.

Modifies a noun

• decade: The annual mean levels have changed little in the past decade.

• year: How many shows have you seen in the past year?

• couple: So that's what's been going on over the past couple of weeks in Sidcup.

• month: The politics of the past several months have been full of interest.

• week: Despite very wet during past week, water at bottom not backed up into dig.

• president: Past president of the London Region of Federation of Master Builders.

Used with adjective complement

• fly: At least a dozen remain on the sea, along with 2 imm m Eiders, and an Egyptian Goose flew past.

• walk: Unusually for sheep they barely moved to avoid us as we walked past.

• sweep: Once on the balcony we stood as the water swept past carrying cars and debris and rising all the time.

• drift: She knelt down by the water's edge, frowning at the dead fish and birds that drifted past.

• sail: Sometimes he called to her as he sailed past in the houseboat, but she never bothered to reply.

Noun used with modifier

• eternity: He has set His love upon us in eternity past, and He will love us throughout eternity future.