UNIT V

SIMPLE PAST TENSE / PAST TENSE

(Bentuk lampau sederhana)

A.    Penggunaan
1. Untuk menyatakan peristiwa atau perbuatan yang terjadi pada waktu tertentu di masa
lampau.
2. Untuk menyatakan kejadian yang berulang-ulang atau yang telah menjadi kebiasaan di waktu
lampau.
B.     Keterangan waktu
Adverb of time yang biasa digunakan dalam Simple Past Tense adalah :
1. Yesterday ….
-          yesterday morning
-          yesterday afternoon
-          yesterday evening
-          yesterday night
2. Last
-          last night                                       -    last century
-          last week                                       -    last monday          
-          last month                                     -    last friday
-          last year                                         -    last January
-          last December
3. The day before yesterday
4. This morning
5. …ago
-          a few minute ago                          -    three month ago
-          an hour ago                                   -    a year ago
-          two days ago                                 -    a century ago
-          a week ago
6. Just now
7. a moment ago
C.    Susunan kalimat
1. Positive (+) : Subject + Verb II
Subject Verb II (Past) Object
I wrote a story
You bought a shirt
We cleaned the room
They played tennis
He went to school
She gave a present
It swam very fast

2. Negative (-)
(-) Subject + did not + verb I
 Subject did not Verb I Object
I write a story
You buy a shirt
We clean the room
They did not play tennis
He goes to school
She gives a present
It swims very fast

3. Interrogative (?)
(?) Did + subject + Verb I ?
Did Subject Verb I Object
I write a story
You buy a shirt
We clean the room
Did They play tennis
He goes to school
She gives a present
It swims very fast

Past Simple Tense

I sang
The past simple tense is sometimes called the "preterite tense". We can use several tenses and
forms to talk about the past, but the past simple tense is the one we use most often.
In this lesson we look at the structure and use of the past simple tense, followed by a quiz to check
your understanding:

How do we make the Past Simple

Tense?
To make the past simple tense, we use:

 past form only
or
 auxiliary did + base form
Here you can see examples of the past form and base form for irregular verbs and regular verbs:

V1 V2 V3
base past past participle

work worked worked The past form for all

regular
explode exploded exploded regular verbs ends in -
verb
like liked liked ed.

irregular go went gone The past form for

verb see saw seen irregular verbs is
 variable. You need to
sing sang sung
learn it by heart.

You do not need the past

participle form to make the past
simple tense. It is shown here for
completeness only.
The structure for positive sentences in the past simple tense is:
subject + main verb
past
The structure for negative sentences in the past simple tense is:
subject + auxiliary verb + not + main verb
did base
The structure for question sentences in the past simple tense is:
auxiliary verb + subject + main verb
did base
The auxiliary verb did is not conjugated. It is the same for all persons (I did, you did, he did etc). And
the base form and past form do not change. Look at these examples with the main
verbs go and work:

subject auxiliary verb main verb

I went to school.
+
You worked very hard.

She did not go with me.

-
We did not work yesterday.

Did you go to London?

?
Did they work at home?
Exception! The verb to be is different. We conjugate the verb to be (I was, you were, he/she/it was,
we were, they were); and we do not use an auxiliary for negative and question sentences. To make a
question, we exchange the subject and verb. Look at these examples:

subject main verb

I, he/she/it was here.

+
You, we, they were in London.

I, he/she/it was not there.

-
You, we, they were not happy.

Was I, he/she/it right?

?
Were you, we, they late?
How do we use the Past Simple Tense?
We use the past simple tense to talk about an action or a situation - an event - in the past. The event
can beshort or long.
Here are some short events with the past simple tense:

The car exploded at 9.30am yesterday.

She went to the door.
We did not hear the telephone.
Did you see that car?

past present future

The action is in the past.

Here are some long events with the past simple tense:

I lived in Bangkok for 10 years.

The Jurassic period lasted about 62 million years.
We did not sing at the concert.
Did you watch TV last night?

past present future

The action is in the past.

Notice that it does not matter how long ago the event is: it can be a few minutes or seconds in the
past, or millions of years in the past. Also it does not matter how long the event is. It can be a few
milliseconds (car explosion) or millions of years (Jurassic period). We use the past simple tense
when:

 the event is in the past

 the event is completely finished
 we say (or understand) the time and/or place of the event
In general, if we say the time or place of the event, we must use the past simple tense; we cannot
use the present perfect.
Here are some more examples:

 I lived in that house when I was young.

 He didn't like the movie.
 What did you eat for dinner?
 John drove to London on Monday.
 Mary did not go to work yesterday.
 Did you play tennis last week?
 I was at work yesterday.
 We were not late (for the train).
 Were you angry?
Note that when we tell a story, we usually use the past simple tense. We may use the past continuous
tense to "set the scene", but we almost always use the past simple tense for the action. Look at this
example of the beginning of a story:
"The wind was howling around the hotel and the rain was pouring down. It was cold. The
dooropened and James Bond entered. He took off his coat, which was very wet, and ordered a
drink at the bar. He sat down in the corner of the lounge and quietly drank his..."
This page shows the use of the past simple tense to talk about past events. But note that there are
some other uses for the past simple tense, for example in conditional or if sentences.
The simple past tense is used to talk about actions that happened at a specific time in the past. You
state when it happened using a time adverb.
You form the simple past of a verb by adding -ed onto the end of a regular verb but, irregular verb
forms have to be learned.
To be To be
Statements Statements Questions ?
+ -
I was. I wasn't. Was I?
He was. He wasn't. Was he?
She was. She wasn't. Was she?
It was. It wasn't. Was it?
You were. You weren't. Were you?
We were. We weren't. Were we?
They were. They weren't. Were they?
Regular Verb (to work) Regular Verb (to work) Short Short
Statements Statements Questions answer  answer
+ - + -
I worked. I didn't work. Did I work? Yes, I did. No, I didn't.
No, he
He worked. He didn't work. Did he work? Yes, he did.
didn't.
Did she Yes, she No, she
She worked. She didn't work.
work? did. didn't.
It worked. It didn't work. Did it work? Yes, it did. No, it didn't.
Did you Yes you No, you
You worked. You didn't work.
work? did. didn't.
Did we No, we
We worked. We didn't work. Yes we did.
work? didn't.
Did they Yes they No, they
They worked. They didn't work.
work? did. didn't.

Simple Past Timeline

For example:
"Last year I took my exams."
"I got married in 1992."
It can be used to describe events that happened over a period of time in the past but not now.
For example:
"I lived in South Africa for two years."
The simple past tense is also used to talk about habitual or repeated actions that took place in the
past.
For example:
"When I was a child we always went to the seaside on bank holidays."