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Past Simple Tense
Past Simple Tense
http://www.studyandexam.com/past-simple-tense.html
It is used to express an action that happened or completed in past, usually a very little time
before speaking, or action which is just completed. Time of action is not specified in terms of
long time ago or short ago but it make a sense that the action has done a little time ago. For
example, a person says, “I watched a movie”, it means the speaker of this sentence watched a
movie a little time ago or little time ago in the same day.
Rules:2nd form of verb (past simple) is used as main verb in the positive sentences and base
form is used in negative and interrogative sentences.
Structure of sentences
Positive Sentence
• Subject + main verb (past simple) + object
• Subject + 2nd form of verb (past simple) + object
Examples
I killed a snake
He ate a mango.
Negative sentences
• Subject + (auxiliary verb + not) main verb (base form) + object
• Subject + did not + 1st form of verb or base form + object
In negative sentence “did not” is written and the 1st form of verb (base verb) is used instead
of using 2nd form (or past simple verb).
Examples.
I did not kill a snake
He did not eat a mango
Interrogative sentences
• Auxiliary verb + subject + main verb (base verb) + object
• Did + subject + 1st form of verb (or base verb) + object
Interrogative sentence starts with “did” and the 1st form of verb (base verb) is used instead of
using 2nd form (or past simple verb).
Examples
Did I kill a snake?
Did he eat a mango?
More Examples
Negative sentences
He gave me a gift
They went to cinema.
She wrote a letter to him.
I made a table.
You answered correctly.
Negative sentences
He did not give me a gift
They did not go to cinema.
She did not write a letter to him.
I did not make a table.
You did not answer correctly.
Interrogative sentences
Did he give me a gift?
Did they go to cinema?
Did she write a letter to him?
Did I make a table?
Did you answer correctly?
More Examples.
Positive Sentences
They have gone to school.
They have bought a new car.
I have started a job
It has rained.
The guests have arrived
John has left for home.
You have told a lie.
Negative Sentences
They have not gone to school.
They have not bought a new car.
I have not started a job
It has not rained.
The guests have not arrived.
John has not left for home.
You have not told a lie.
Negative Sentences
Have they gone to school?
Have they bought a new car?
Have I started a job?
Has it rained?
Have the guests arrived?
Has John left for home?
Have you told a lie?
Simple past
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simple_past
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The simple past or past simple, sometimes called the preterite, is the basic form of the past
tense in Modern English. It is used principally to describe events in the past, although it also
has some other uses. Regular English verbs form the simple past in -ed; however there are a
few hundred irregular verbs with different forms.
The term "simple" is used to distinguish the syntactical construction whose basic form uses
the plain past tense alone, from other past tense constructions which use auxiliaries in
combination with participles, such as the past perfect and past progressive.
Contents
1 Formation
2 Usage
3 See also
4 References
Formation
Regular verbs form the simple past in -ed; however there are a few hundred irregular verbs
with different forms. For details see English verbs: Past tense.
Most verbs have a single form of the simple past, independent of the person or number of the
subject (there is no addition of -s for the third person singular as in the simple present).
However, the copula verb be has two past tense forms: was for the first and third persons
singular, and were in other instances. The form were can also be used in place of was in
conditional clauses and the like; for information on this, see English subjunctive. This is the
only case in modern English where a distinction in form is made between the indicative and
subjunctive moods in the past tense.
Questions, other clauses requiring inversion, negations with not, and emphatic forms of the
simple past use the auxiliary did. For details of this mechanism, see do-support. A full list of
forms is given below, using the (regular) verb help as an example:
Basic simple past:
o I/you/he/she/it/we/they helped
Question form:
Negative:
Negative question:
Usage
The simple past is used for a single event (or sequence of such events) in the past, and also
for past habitual action:
For action that was ongoing at the time referred to, the past progressive is generally used
instead (e.g. I was cooking). The same can apply to states, if temporary (e.g. the ball was
lying on the sidewalk), but some stative verbs do not generally use the progressive aspect at
all – see Uses of English verb forms: Progressive – and in these cases the simple past is used
even for a temporary state:
However, with verbs of sensing, it is common in such circumstances to use could see in place
of saw, could hear in place of heard, etc. For more on this, see can see.
If one action interrupts another, then it is usual for the interrupted (ongoing) action to be
expressed with the past progressive, and the action that interrupted it to be in the simple past:
Contrast these examples with those given at Uses of English verb forms: Present perfect.
Note also that for past actions that occurred before the relevant past time frame, the past
perfect is used.
Various compound constructions exist for denoting past habitual action. The sentence When I
was young, I played football every Saturday might alternatively be phrased using used to (... I
used to play ...) or using would (... I would play...).
The simple past also has some uses in which it does not refer to a past time. These are
generally in condition clauses and some other dependent clauses referring to hypothetical
circumstances, as well as certain expressions of wish:
For more details see the sections on conditionals, dependent clauses and expressions of wish
in the article on uses of English verb forms.
For use of the simple past (and other past tense forms) in indirect speech, see Uses of English
verb forms: Indirect speech. An example:
Of course, you can also have the negative version, which is formed "did not" + "[verb in base
form]":
("On Tuesday last week" tells you when it happened. It's called an adverbial phrase of
time. Other examples are"Yesterday," "Last year," "Before breakfast,". They are really
common. When any adverb appears at the front of a sentence, it is usual to follow it
with a comma. A comma is not usually used when the adverbial phrase appears at the
back of a sentence. NB: This is not a strict rule. Use a comma if it helps your reader.)
Read more about commas with adverbial phrases.
Just before he was caught, the burglar considered using the fire escape.
("Just before he was caught" tells you when the activity took place.)
Examples of "how long an activity took":
("Last week" tells you when it happened and for how long.)
Regular Verbs
If it's a regular verb, the simple past tense is formed like this:
If a verb of one syllable ends [consonant-vowel-consonant], double the final consonant and
add "ed":
If last syllable of a longer verb is stressed and ends [consonant-vowel-consonant], double the
last consonant and add "ed":
If the first syllable of a longer verb is stressed and the verb ends [consonant-vowel-
consonant], just add "ed":
If the verb ends [consonant + "y"], change the "y" to an "i" and add "ed":
Irregular Verbs
If it's an irregular verb, the simple past tense is formed in all sorts of different ways. Here are
some examples:
http://www.grammar-monster.com/glossary/simple_past_tense.htm
Simple past tense
http://www.edufind.com/english-
grammar/simple-past-tense/
Functions of the Simple Past Tense
The simple past is used to talk about a completed action in a time before now. Duration is
not important. The time of the action can be in the recent past or the distant past.
Examples
You always use the simple past when you say when something happened, so it is associated
with certain past time expressions
a definite point in time: last week, when I was a child, yesterday, six weeks ago
We saw a good film last week.
Yesterday, I arrived in Geneva.
She finished her work atseven o'clock
I went to the theatre last night
an indefinite point in time: the other day, ages ago, a long time ago People lived in caves a
long time ago.
Note: the word ago is a useful way of expressing the distance into the past. It is placed after
the period of time: a week ago, three years ago, a minute ago.
Be Careful: The simple past in English may look like a tense in your own language, but the meaning
may be different.
Forming the Simple Past Tense
Subject + verb + ed
I skipped.
Negative
Interrogative
Interrogative negative
To Walk
Affirmative Negative Interrogative
Be Have Do
Affirmative
For the negative and interrogative simple past form of "do" as an ordinary verb, use the
auxiliary "do", e.g. We didn't do our homework last night.
The negative of "have" in the simple past is usually formed using the auxiliary "do", but
sometimes by simply adding not or the contraction "n't".
The interrogative form of "have" in the simple past normally uses the auxiliary "do".
Examples
Note: For the negative and interrogative form of all verbs in the simple past, always use the
auxiliary 'did''.
Some verbs are irregular in the simple past. Here are the most common ones.
to go
to give
to come
The Simple Past Tense and The Past Progressive (Continuous) Tense
SIMPLE PAST TENSE
http://cherrymayforonda.blogspot.co.id/2007/10/simple-past-tense-and-past-progressive.html
EXAMPLES:
The simple past is used to describe an action, an event, or condition that occurred in the past,
sometime before the moment of speaking or writing.
Each of the highlighted verbs in the following sentences is in the simple past tense and each
sentence describes an action taking place at some point in past.
FORM
[ was/were + present participle ]
EXAMPLES:
The past progressive tense is used to described actions ongoing in the past. These actions often take
place within a specific time frame. While actions referred to in the present progressive have some
connection to the present, actions referred in the past progressive have no immediate or obvious
connection to the present. The on-going actions took place and were completed at some point well
before the time of speaking or writing.
Each of the highlighted verbs in the following sentences is in the past progressive tense.
This sentence describes an action that took place over a period of continuous time in the past. The
cat's actions have no immediate relationship to anything occurring now in the present.
Apple was telling a story about the exploits of a red cow when a tree branch broke the
window.
Here the action "was telling" took place in the past and continued for some time in the past.
When the recess bell rang, Jesse was writing a long division problem on the blackboard.
This sentence describes actions ("ran" and "was writing") that took place sometime in the past, and
emphasizes the continuing nature of one of the actions ("was writing").
The archivists were eagerly waiting for the delivery of the former prime minister's private
papers.
Here the ongoing action of "waiting" occurred at some time unconnected to the present.
Between 1942 and 1944, the Frank and Van Damm families were hiding in a Amsterdam
office building.
In this sentence, the action of hiding took place over an extended period of time and the continuing
nature of the hiding is emphasized.
1. Lehrplan:
Klasse 6
2. Lehrbuch:
previously done:
Difficulties 1. forms
pronunciation of -ed
irregular verbs
2. function
reported speech
if-clauses type II
4. other difficulties
often used together with the past perfect or past progressive tense
......ago
before
after
story-telling
reports
fairy tales
Past progressive
Functions
apparently continuous uninterrupted actions in the past
perhaps suddenly interrupted by an action in simple past tense
1. Lehrplan:
Klasse 7
present progressive
past tens of to be
1. forms
2. function
4. other difficulties
when
while
curriculum vitae
Example:
"simple past tens
Table of Contents
http://www.kfmaas.de/gram_pastt.html