Tense of a verb shows the time an action or condition. Tense also gives information such as whether an action happened just once, happened repeatedly, has stopped happening, or still happening. As for now we will concentrate on past tense.
Simple Past Tense
What is past tense actually, according to the formal definition it brings the meaning of something that has passed or rather it already happened at the time it was reiterated (current moment). In simple words which based on my understanding it defines as an action, event or situation that has happened to the subject and usually there are indications like yesterday, last time, a minute ago or even suffix such as –ed on the root words. These “hint” are considers as the indications of something of the past.
We use the Past Tense to talk about things that happened before now.
Many verbs add –ed to make the Past Tense (these are called the “Regular Verbs”):
I played tennis yesterday.
I finished my homework last night.
“-ed” can have 3 different sounds: “t,” “d,” or “ed.”
“t” | “d” | “d” | “ed” |
asked | cleaned | played | needed |
looked | learned | used | started |
finished | listened | studied | counted |
talked | changed | closed | wanted |
worked | turned on | tried | ended |
watched | turned off | opened | |
FORM
[VERB+ed] or regular verbs
Examples:
- You called Kamal.
- Did you call Kamal?
- You did not call Kamal.
Regular verbs: base form +-ed | Irregular verbs: irregular forms | |
Statements | I worked He worked | I went He went |
Questions | Did you work? Did he work? | Did you go? Did he go? |
Negatives | They didn’t work. He didn’t work. | They didn’t go He didn’t go |
Irregular verbs sample
Base forms/ present tense | Simple past ( irregular verbs) |
Go | Went |
Awake | Awoke |
Become | Became |
Bite | bit |
Blow | blew |
Irregular verbs have various forms and each verb needs to be learned.
see - saw
think - thought
The past simple is used to express a finished past action which occurs at a specific moment in the past.
Examples
She visited Sabah last month.
They didn't go to Tina's party last weekend.
Where did you go on vacation last December?
The following time signifiers often indicate a specific point in time.
last
ago
in ... (plus a year or month)
yesterday
when ... (plus a phrase)
ago
in ... (plus a year or month)
yesterday
when ... (plus a phrase)
Examples
They had lunch at home last week.
He left the company many years ago.
Susan bought a new car in May.
He telephoned his friend in Pahang yesterday.
I played golf when I was a teenager.
Positive Form
Subject + past form of verb + object(s) + time
Examples
They flew to Sabah last month.
Parveene completed his course three weeks ago.
Negative Form
Subject + did + not + base form of verb + object(s) + (time)
Examples
They didn't expect to see you at Kedah.
She didn't understand the question.
Question Form
(Wh?) + did + subject + base form of verb + (object(s))+ (time)?
Examples
Where did you study Bahasa Malaysia?
When did you arrive last week?
Tips!
How to recognize regular verbs and irregular verbs? Its easy, regular verbs needs an additional –ed but for irregular verbs the change of root words or base form into something new which is slightly different than the root words.
For more on irregular verbs click http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/simplepastforms.htm