Past Tense 過去式

Simple Past Tense

We use the simple past tense to talk about an action or a situation - an event - in the past.

To make the simple past 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
regular verb	work like	worked liked	The past form for all regular verbs ends in -ed.
irregular verb	go see sing	went saw sang	The past form for irregular verbs is variable. You need to learn it by heart.

Example:

1.          I went to school yesterday.

2.          I saw a movie last night.

3.          My mother came to see me last month.

4.          I ate three apples this morning.

5.          He was happy yesterday.

Exericse:

1.          I _____________ (live) in that house when I __________ (be) young.

2.          He _________ not ___________ (do / like) the movie.

3.          What _____ you _________ (do / eat) for dinner?

4.          John _________ (drive) to London on Monday.

5.          Mary _________ not ________ (do / need) to work yesterday.

6.          _________ you ___________ (Do / play) tennis last week?

7.          I ________ (be) at work yesterday.

8.          __________ (Are) you angry?

9.          She _____ (be) such a nice girl.

10.      I ____________ (meet) your son last month.

11.      I __________ (eat) three apples this morning.

12.      He ________ (go) to church to pray last night.

13.      I _________ (see) a movie yesterday.

14.      Last year, I ___________ (travel) to Japan.

15.      She _____________ (wash) her car.

16.      He _________ not _________ (do/wash) his car

  

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 andwork:

	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?