Simple Past Tense

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
  1. Last
-          last night                                       -    last century
-          last week                                       -    last monday          
-          last month                                     -    last friday
-          last year                                         -    last January
-          last December
  1. The day before yesterday
  2. This morning
  3. …ago
-          a few minute ago                          -    three month ago
-          an hour ago                                   -    a year ago
-          two days ago                                 -    a century ago
-          a week ago
  1. Just now
  2. a moment ago
C.    Susunan kalimat
  1. Positive (+) : Subject + Verb II
Subject
Verb II (Past)
Object
I
You
We
They
He
She
It
wrote
bought
cleaned
played
went
gave
swam
a story
a shirt
the room
tennis
to school
a present
very fast
  1. Negative (-)
(-) Subject + did not + verb I
Subject
did not
Verb I
Object
I
You
We
They
He
She
It
did not
write
buy
clean
play
goes
gives
swims
a story
a shirt
the room
tennis
to school
a present
very fast
  1. Interrogative (?)
(?) Did + subject + Verb I ?
Did
Subject
Verb I
Object
Did
I
You
We
They
He
She
It
write
buy
clean
play
goes
gives
swims
a story
a shirt
the room
tennis
to school
a present
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
base
V2
past
V3
past participle

regular verb work
explode
like
worked
exploded
liked
worked
exploded
liked
The past form for all regular verbs ends in -ed.
irregular verb go
see
sing
went
saw
sang
gone
seen
sung
The past form for irregular verbs is variable. You need to 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 be short 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 door opened 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
Statements
+
To be
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) Statements
+
Regular Verb (to work) Statements
-
Questions Short answer
+
Short answer
-
I worked. I didn't work. Did I work? Yes, I did. No, I didn't.
He worked. He didn't work. Did he work? Yes, he did. No, he didn't.
She worked. She didn't work. Did she work? Yes, she did. No, she didn't.
It worked. It didn't work. Did it work? Yes, it did. No, it didn't.
You worked. You didn't work. Did you work? Yes you did. No, you didn't.
We worked. We didn't work. Did we work? Yes we did. No, we didn't.
They worked. They didn't work. Did they work? Yes they did. No, they 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."

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