SIMPLE PAST TENSE

Hello again :)

Since my students are going to sit for their mid-term examination this week, I would like to share more notes on tenses. It is important to use the correct tense(s) when speaking and writing. It will help our listeners and readers to understand our message better.

Today, I'm going to blog about SIMPLE PAST TENSE.

Simple Past Tense is basically used to describe actions which happened at a specific time in the past.

For example,

Kimberly played netball yesterday.

- Look at the verb. The basic form of 'play' has been changed to 'played'. 'ed' is added to the base verb. This change indicates the use of simple past tense.

- The adverb 'yesterday' is the specific time which shows when did the action 'played' happen.

# We usually add 'ed' or 'ied' (for most words ending we 'y', we change the 'y' into 'i' and add 'ed') to the base verb to indicate past tense.

E.g.
1) I watched Jackie Chan's movie last night.
2) She moved to Jamaica last month.
3) Last year, Nikhil worked with his sister at the bowling center.
4) Devan and Jimmy studied at the Lincoln College of Arts before.
5) After graduation, they applied for a job in the engineering field.

# Other than action verbs, the form of be verbs also change when simple past tense is applied.

For example,

Mr. Pang was in Malacca two weeks ago.
He was a teacher before.
I was at her room when the robbery happened.
Sheila, Karen and Haneem were my best friends in primary school.
You were there after they buried him.
They were away the whole of last week.

So far, I have only shown you the examples for regular verbs in their past tense form. Now, let's have a look at the irregular verbs.

When we talk about irregular verbs, they simply mean verbs which do not follow the regular pattern of adding 'ed' or 'ied' in their past tense form.

For example,

Adlin drank a cup of coffee this morning.

Lee woke up late today.

We spoke to their parents after the class.

I put on my coat and left the house before sunrise.

#Irregular verbs can be learned through reading and daily communication.


Let's try some of these exercises:

1) Simple Past Tense Quiz by EnglishClub.com
2) Past Simple Tense Quiz by English-Quiz.net
3) Simple Past Tense Test by www.EnglishBee.net