Past Tense

Past Tense is used to talk about things that happened in the past.

Pattern A : S + to be (was/were) + O
(+) S + was/were + O
(-) S + was/were + not + O
(?) Was/were + S + O + ?


Example :
(+) I was a student
(-) I was not a student
(?) Was I a student ?

Pattern B : S + verb II + O
(+) S + verb II + O
(-) S + did + not + verb I + O
(?) Did + S + verb I + O + ?



Example ;
(+) I saw the girl
(-) I did not see the girl
(?) Did I see the girl ?


Time signal :
•Yesterday
•Last night
•An hour ago
•In (year)
•The other day
•Every day last year
•Last year


Simple past is formed for regular verbs by adding –ed to the root of a word. Example: He walked to the store. A negation is produced by adding did not and the verb in its infinitive form. Example: He did not walk to the store. Question sentences are started with did as in Did he walk to the store?


Simple past is used for describing acts that have already been concluded and whose exact time of occurrence is known. Furthermore, simple past is used for retelling successive events. That is why it is commonly used in storytelling


Simple Past Tense is a kind of tense which is used to describe an event or action that happened already in a certain time in the past


The pattern :
(+) Subject + verb II + complement
(-) Subject + did not + verb II + complement
(?) Did + subject + verb I


The examples :
(+) I went to Tangkiling yesterday
(-) I did not go anywhere last night
(?) Did you go last week?


Adverbs used : yesterday, last night, last week, two days ago, a few minutes ago, last weekend, last month, last year, in 1984, etc.
The pattern :
(+) Subject + had+verb III+cmplement
(-) Subject + had not+ver III+complement
(?) Had + subject +verb III+complement


Examples:
(+) We had eaten before they came
(-) They had not eaten before we came
(?) Had they eaten before we came?


Adverbs used :
from 1998 to 1999, once, twice, etc.