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Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Simple Past Tense

Past Simple Tense


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?