SIMPLE PAST TENSE

PRESENTED BY
INDAH DWI PERMANAWATI
1305020082

Description
In general, the simple past tense is used to :
a. Indicates an activity or situation that began and ended at a
particular time in the past. Example : He helped me last week.
b. Describe events that happened over a period of time in the
past but not now. Example : When I was young, I worked hard.
c. Explain an activity or situation that happened in the past.
Example : we were at home last night.
Some common time signal used in simple past tense are
yesterday, last..(last night, last week, day), an (hour, day,
month) ago, this morning, this noon, etc.

In simple past tense, there are two types of verb,

regular verbs and irregular verbs.
A. REGULAR VERBS
We form the simple
past tense of most
verbs by adding -ed
or -d.
If the verb ends with
y preceded by a
vowel, add -ed.
If the verb ends with
y preceded by a
consonant, drop the
y, turn it into i and

REGULAR
VERB

EXAMPLE

want
help
live

wanted
helped
lived

play
stay
cook

played
stayed
cooked

study
bury
carry

studied
buried
carried

B. IRREGULAR VERBS
These verbs dont follow any rules. Irregular verbs form must
be learned and you need to memorize these verb.
IRREGULAR VERB

EXAMPLE

awake

awoke

buy

bought

come

came

drink

drank

go

went

But, some other verbs do not change.

Examples : put put, hurt hurt, let let, cut cut.

1. VERBAL SENTENCE

THE PATTERN

For
m

Pattern

Example

Subject + verb 2

a. They went to Bandung this morning

b. She saw Helen yesterday.

Subject + did + not +

infinitive

a. They did not go to Bandung this

morning.
b. She did not see Helen yesterday.

a. Did they go to Bandung this

Did + subject +
?
morning?
infinitive?
To make a negative verbal sentence,
auxiliary
verb did then add
b. we
Did add
she see
Helen yesterday?

not after the subject. Did can used in all of subject (I, You, They, We, He,
She, It).

In Interrogative sentence, we can also use a question word (When, What,

Where, etc.) before did to ask for more information.
Example : When did they go to Bandung?

2. NOMINAL SENTENCE
In this sentence, the predicate is not a verb, but it used a noun,
adjective, or adverb. So, in this nominal sentence we used was and were.
was is the past form to be is, am this is for subject I, He, She, and It.
were is the past form to be are, and this is for subject We, You, They.
Form

Pattern

Example

S + was/were + Non Verb

S + was/were + not + Non Verb

a. We were not happy last day

b. b. I was not ill yesterday

Was/were + Subject+ Non Verb?

a. Were we happy last night?

b. Was ill yesterday?

a. We were happy last day

b. I was ill yesterday

REFERENCES
Azar, Betty Schrampfer. (1989). English Grammar : Second
Edition. New York. Longman.
H., Drs. Rudy and W. Smith, Harry. (2013). English Grammar
Complete edition. Mahirsindo Utama.
Lou, Robby. (2006). English Grammar and How to Used It.