I personally use "past" for unspecified groups of things as well. For example, "I've really been studying a lot the past few days" = approximately 2-7 days "For the past few years I've lived in Russia" Again, the emphasis isn't on the fact how long I lived there specifically, just that it's been a few years and in Russia. In contrast, I would use last for specified timeframes or dates. For the last 4 days I've spent all my time in bed. Here I'm drawing more attention to the timeframe, the 4 days are more important here. For the last 8 years I've struggled to quit smoking. In each of the phrases with last__days/weeks/months/years I could feel my mind wanting to speak about something that was challenging, or to demonstrate that a larger amount of effort took place. All in all, you can exchange the two: - “…Past/last hours…” past hours= the hours before this moment/last hours= time before something ends. last hours of life. - “…Past/last year/week…” in this instance, you can start a sentence with "Last year/week/month s/o. accomplished _____" whereas you cannot start with Past. It would be later in the sentence, but the meaning is the same: "In the past year s/o. accomplished____" - “…Past/last few days…” (In) the past few days_________ (In) the last few days______ =same meaning; the preposition "in" is not essential in spoken English, but looks nice when written (for school or business). “Horizon Zero Dawn's PS5 upgrade delivers a nigh-on flawless 60fps.” Nigh does mean near, though I wouldn't recommend using the word as people would find you strange, but that's just my perspective as an American, I don't know how other native cultures perceive the word. We really only have one phrase with the word "the end is nigh"= the end is near (it's idiomatic) I wouldn't know how to interpret that just reading it, and or would wonder why they included it as "delivers a flawless 60fps" has a nicer flow. I might say "damn near" if I was speaking to a friend

When we use past it usually means farther back in time. Whereas "last" we use for very recent times. They are pretty interchangeable. 2) nigh means near. Horizon Zero Dawn's PS5 upgrade delivers nigh-on (near) flawless 60fps.

Last year means the last calendar year, for example, 2020 (since we're in the year 2021). Past year means the 365 days preceding today. For example, since it's the 27th Sept 2021 today, then the past year would mean the time between 27th Sept 2020 and 27th Sept 2021. Hope this helps :)

Hi, Luiz! We use the term "last" when we want to talk about a period of time which is the final phase of a certain activity or event. "Past", on the other hand, is used when we want to talk about a period of time which has just gone by recently. Please book a trial lesson with me and I can help explain it further & also when to use them in sentences. I hope to hear back from you :)