Verb Tenses

Simple Past:

Simple past tense is used to narrate an action of the past. The verb in the past tense ends with an -ed and hence, there are seven ways of marking the irregular verbs in the past tense. The most common being the change of the vowel as in “drink”-“drank”.

Structure:  verb+ed or irregular verbs.

Positive, negative and question forms:

Positive	Negative	Question
I arrived yesterday.	I did not arrive.	Did I arrive yesterday?
You arrived yesterday.	You didn’t arrive.	Did you arrive?
She arrived.	She didn’t arrive.	Did she arrive?

 

Simple past common mistakes:

Common mistakes	Correct version	Why?
I was work in London.	I worked in London.	In posiive sentences, a helping verb such as “was” or “did” is not used.
He worked in London?	Did he work in London?	The helping verb “did” is used in past simple questions.
He didn’t wrote a letter.	He didn’t write a letter.	The main verb is used in the infinitive form in questions and negatives.

 

Different usages:

1.       Repeated actions;

Use the simple past to express the idea that an action started and finished a specific time in the past. Sometimes, the speacker may not actually mention the specific time , but they do have one specific time in mind.

Examples; I saw a movie yesterday.

                   Last year, I traveled to Japan.

 

2.       A series of completed actions;

We use the simple past to list a series of completed actions in the past. These actions happen 1st, 2nd, 3 rd, and so on.

Examples; I finished work, walked to the beach, and found a nice place to swim.

                    Did you add flour, pour in the milk, and then add the eggs?

 

3.       Duration in past;

The simple past can be used with a duration which starts and stops in the past. A duration is a longer action often indicated by expessions such as: for two years, all day, all year, etc.

Examples; I lived in Brazil for two years.

                  They sat at the beach all day.

 

4.       Habits in the past;

The simple past cal also be used to described a habit which stopped in the past. It can have same meanings as “used to”. To make it clear that we are talking about a habit, we often add epressions such as: always, never, when I was a child, etc.

Examples; They never went to school, they always skipped class.    

                    I studied French when I was a child.   

5.       Important When-clauses happen first;

Clauses are groups of words which have meaning but are often not complete sentences. Some clauses begin with the word “when” , these clauses are called when-clauses, and they are very important.

Examples; When i paid her one dollar, she answeres my question.

                    She answered my question when i paid her one dollar.

When-clauses are important because they always happen first when both clauses are in the simple past.

Modal verbs: modal verb behave very strangely in the simple past.

·         I must call my wife now.

·         I had to call my wife yesterday.