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

 Expanded (emphatic) simple past:

o I/you/he/she/it/we/they did help

 Question form:

o Did I/you/he/she/it/we/they help?

 Negative:

o I/you/he/she/it/we/they did not (didn't) help

 Negative question:

o Did I/you/he/she/it/we/they not help? / Didn't I/you/he/she/it/we/they help?

Usage
The simple past is used for a single event (or sequence of such events) in the past, and also
for past habitual action:

He took the money and ran.

I visited them every day for a year.

It can also refer to a past state:

I knew how to fight even as a child.

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:

The dog was in its kennel.

I felt cold.

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:

Your mother called while you were cooking.

The simple past is often close in meaning to the present perfect. The simple past is used when
the event happened at a particular time in the past, or during a period which ended in the past
(i.e. a period that does not last up until the present time). This time frame may be explicitly
stated, or implicit in the context (for example the past tense is often used when describing a
sequence of past events).

I was born in 1980.

We turned the oven off two minutes ago.
I came home at 6 o'clock.
When did they get married?
We wrote two letters this morning. (the simple past is appropriate here if it is no
longer morning)
She placed the letter on the table, sighed, and left the house.

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:

If he walked faster, he would get home earlier.

I wish I knew what his name was.
I would rather she wore a longer dress.

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:

He said he wanted to go on the slide.

What Is the Simple Past Tense? (with

Examples)
The simple past tense is used to describe a completed activity that happened in the past. In
other words, it started in the past and ended in the past.

Uses of the Simple Past Tense

Here are some examples of the simple past tense (shaded):

 The Martians landed near the aqueduct.

 The burglar considered using the fire escape.

Of course, you can also have the negative version, which is formed "did not" + "[verb in base
form]":

 The Martians did not land near the aqueduct.

(We could have used didn't instead of did not.)

 The burglar did not consider using the fire escape.

And, the question versions:

 Did the Martians land near the aqueduct?

 Why didn't the burglar consider using the fire escape?

Forming the Simple Past Tense

Here is an infographic explaining the simple past tense:

The Simple Past Tense with Time

Expressions
The simple past tense is often seen with a time expression explaining when the activity took
place or how long it lasted.

Examples of "when an activity took place":

 On Tuesday last week, the Martians landed near the aqueduct.

("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.

 The Martians landed near the aqueduct on Tuesday last week.

 (Note: No comma)

 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, the council inspected the drains.

("Last week" tells you when it happened and for how long.)

 Her daughter hid under the bed for three hours.

(Using "for" is a common way of describing how long an activity lasted.)

The Other Past Tenses

The simple past tense is one of four past tenses. They are:

The 4 Past Tenses Example

simple past tense I went
past progressive tense I was going
past perfect tense I had gone
past perfect progressive tense I had been going

Regular Verbs
If it's a regular verb, the simple past tense is formed like this:

Add "ed" to most verbs:

 jump > jumped

 paint > painted

If a verb of one syllable ends [consonant-vowel-consonant], double the final consonant and
add "ed":

 chat > chatted

 stop > stopped

If the final consonant is w, x or y, don't double it:

 sew > sewed

  play > played

 fix > fixed

If last syllable of a longer verb is stressed and ends [consonant-vowel-consonant], double the
last consonant and add "ed":

 incur > incurred

 prefer > preferred

If the first syllable of a longer verb is stressed and the verb ends [consonant-vowel-
consonant], just add "ed":

 open > opened

 enter > entered

 swallow > swallowed

If the verb ends "e", just add "d":

 thrive > thrived

 guzzle > guzzled

If the verb ends [consonant + "y"], change the "y" to an "i" and add "ed":

 cry > cried

 fry > fried

Irregular Verbs
If it's an irregular verb, the simple past tense is formed in all sorts of different ways. Here are
some examples:

 break > broke

 catch > caught

 find > found

 see > saw

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

 John Cabot sailed to America in 1498.

 My father died last year.

 He lived in Fiji in 1976.

 We crossed the Channel yesterday.

You always use the simple past when you say when something happened, so it is associated
with certain past time expressions

 frequency: often, sometimes, always

I sometimes walked home at lunchtime.
I often brought my lunch to school.

 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.

 She played the piano when she was a child.

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

Patterns of simple past tense for regular verbs

Affirmative

Subject + verb + ed

I skipped.

Negative

Subject + did not + infinitive without to

They didn't go.

Interrogative

Did + subject + infinitive without to

Did she arrive?

Interrogative negative

Did not + subject + infinitive without to

Didn't you play?

To Walk
Affirmative Negative Interrogative

I walked I didn't walk Did I walk?

You walked You didn't walk Did you walk?

He walked He didn't walk Did he walk?

We walked We didn't walk Did we walk?

They walked They didn't walk Did they walk?

Simple past tense of to be, to have, to do

Subject Verb

Be Have Do

I was had did

You were had did

He/She/It was had did

We were had did

 Subject Verb

You were had did

They were had did

Notes on affirmative, negative, & interrogative forms

Affirmative

The affirmative of the simple past tense is simple.

 I was in Japan last year

 She had a headache yesterday.

 We did our homework last night.

Negative and interrogative

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

 They weren't in Rio last summer.

 We didn't have any money.

 We didn't have time to visit the Eiffel Tower.

 We didn't do our exercises this morning.

 Were they in Iceland last January?

 Did you have a bicycle when you were young?

 Did you do much climbing in Switzerland?

Note: For the negative and interrogative form of all verbs in the simple past, always use the
auxiliary 'did''.

Simple past, irregular verbs

Some verbs are irregular in the simple past. Here are the most common ones.
to go

 He went to a club last night.

 Did he go to the cinema last night?

 He didn't go to bed early last night.

to give

 We gave her a doll for her birthday.

 They didn't give John their new address.

 Did Barry give you my passport?

to come

 My parents came to visit me last July.

 We didn't come because it was raining.

 Did he come to your party last week?

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

FORM [ verb + ed ] or irregular verbs

EXAMPLES:

 I saw a movie yesterday.

 She washed her car.

 They sat at the beach all day.

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.

 A flea jumped from the dog to the cat.

  Angelo gripped the hammer tightly and nailed the boards together.

 The gem-stones sparkled in a velvet lined display case.

 Artemisia Gentilsechi probably died in 1652.

PAST PROGRESSIVE (CONTINUOUS) TENSE

FORM
[ was/were + present participle ]

EXAMPLES:

 I was watching TV when she called.

 While we were having the picnic, it started to rain.

 Apple was waiting for us when we got off the plane.

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.

 The cat was walking along the tree branch.

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.

Simple past tense

 looked [t] after voiceless consonants

moved [d] after voiced consonants and vowels
Forms started [id] after t and d

 went 2nd form of irregular verbs

 actions completed in the past at a definite time

Functions
 narrative

1. Lehrplan:

 Klasse 6

 Kontrastierung mit present perfect tense Klasse 7

Curriculum  Wiederholung Klasse 9/10

2. Lehrbuch:
previously done:

 present perfect - regular verbs : -ed

Difficulties 1. forms

 pronunciation of -ed

 irregular verbs

 questions and negations with "to do"

2. function

 reported speech

 interrupting a progressive action in the past progressive

  following an action in past perfect tense

3. inter-, intralingual interferences

 different usage of the tense in spoken English or German

 contrasts to present perfect tense

 if-clauses type II

4. other difficulties

 often used together with the past perfect or past progressive tense

 ......ago

 before

 after

 story-telling

 reports

Situations  narration of past events

 fairy tales

Past progressive

 I / He / She / It was looking

Forms
 You / We / They were looking

Functions
 apparently continuous uninterrupted actions in the past
  perhaps suddenly interrupted by an action in simple past tense

 description (of pictures in picture stories)

1. Lehrplan:

 Klasse 7

 Verbindung mit simple past tense Klasse 7

 Wiederholung Klasse 9/10

Curriculum
2. Lehrbuch:
previously done:

 present progressive

 past tens of to be

1. forms

 was vs. were

2. function

 to describe action-in-progress in the past (same as present progressive)

3. inter-, intralingual interferences

Difficulties
 different usage of the tense in spoken English or German

4. other difficulties

 when

 while

 curriculum vitae

Situations  letters of application

 narration of past events going on before they were suddenly interrupted

Example:
"simple past tens
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