14.1 Usage: Regular and Irregular Verbs:
The Simple Past Tense is used:
A: to describe actions/events that happened in the recent or
long past and are now finished.
e.g. The salesman sold two cars yesterday.
My brother bought a new house last year.
B: to tell a story.
e.g. A man went into a pub and asked for
a beer .............
N.B. The Simple Past Tense is often used with certain phrases
of time:
yesterday, last night, last month, last year, two years ago.
14.2 Structure: Irregular Verbs:
e.g. The policemen caught the criminals.
In English, there are many irregular verbs and these must be learned. Some examples are:-
Infinitive Past Tense Past Participle
to buy bought bought
to drive drove driven
to drink drunk drunk
The most common irregular verbs are listed in Appendix I.
14.3 Structure: Regular Verbs:
e.g. I cleaned my car.
The general rule for construction of the Simple Past Tense of regular verbs is:
Take the infinitive of the verb and add -ed. E.g. To clean .......... cleaned
14.4 Structure: Exceptions:
A: When the infinitive form ends in -e, only -d is added:
e.g. I live in Paris .................... I lived in Paris.
B: When the infinitive form ends in a consonant plus -y, remove the -y and add -ied in its place:
e.g. I try hard ........................... I tried hard.
C: When the infinitive ends in -p or -it, double the last letter:
e.g. to stop ................................stopped
to knit ..................................knitted
14.5 There are no other exceptions to the rule in written form
but there are exceptions in pronunciation of the Simple Past Tense.
A: If the infinitive ends in -d, -t, -te, the Simple Past Tense ending is pronounced -id:
e.g. to shout ..............shouted (pronounced shout-id)
B: If the infinitive ends in any other consonant, the Simple Past Tense ending is pronounced -d:
e.g. to fix ...................fixed (pronounced fixd)
C: If the infinitive ends in -ce, -k, -s, -ss, the
Simple Past Tense ending is pronounced -t:
e.g. to dance..............danced (pronounced dancet)
to walk ...............walked (pronounced walkt)
14.6 Structure: Regular and Irregular Verbs: Negative:
In the negative form use the Simple Past Tense of the verb to do as did plus the infinitive:
e.g. I did not notice the cat. - Regular
/I didn't notice the cat.
Didn't Bill forgive his sister? - Irregular
N.B. Carefully note the word order in negative sentences.
14.7 Structure: Regular and Irregular verbs: Questions:
To form questions, use the Simple Past Tense of the verb to do
as did /did not plus the infinitive:
e.g. Did you stop at the shop?
Where did you work?
Didn't Bill sing a song?
N.B. Carefully note the word order for questions.