SIMPLE PAST

TENSE
COURSE CODE: FLEN 1011
INSTRUCTOR: Ato Sintayehu G/Mariam

Submitted By:

 Gueldon Abdi
 Houssein Tayib
 Absera Berhanu
 Nathnael Alebachew
 Arcan Ditamo
 STEPHEN BUAY KHERKHER
 ERMIAS AMSALU

APRIL 2023
Summary

Introduction.............................................................2

I-The simple past tense................................................................2

II-Simple past and expression of time........................................2
III-Simple past tense uses............................................................3
IV-Form of simple past’s verbs...................................................3
1)regular verbs.............................................................4
2)Irregular verbs...........................................................4
3)Verbs to be.................................................................4
V-Different version of simple past tense....................................5
i. Negative version..............................................................5
ii. Question version...................................................................................5
VI-Comparison with other past tenses.......................................6

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Introduction

I
SIMPLE PAST TENSE

n grammar, Tenses are the use of specific forms of verbs to express time references particularly
in the conjugation patterns. In other words, tenses add a time factor to sentences.

The main tenses found in the English grammar include the past, present and future. The present
tenses deal with events that are happening in the current moment while the future tenses describe
situations in the near future. The Past tense, on the other hand, deals with all events that
happened in the past. It includes: the simple past, the past continuous, the past perfect and the
past perfect continuous.

In this paper, we will address the Simple Past Tense. The Simple Past Tense will be defined,
described in terms of grammatical rules and exemplified by using day to day conversations.

I. Definition of Simple Past Tense

The simple past tense, in English, is used to represent an action/event that took place in the past.
With many verbs, the simple past tense is formed by adding an ‘ed’ or a ‘d’ to the end of the base
verb. However, there are other verbs which behave differently and take different spellings when
used in the simple past form.
Example:

 I went to school. (Simple Past)

 I went to school yesterday. (Simple past with adverb of time)

II. Simple Past and Expression of Time

Some adverbs of time can be used to express passed events and can be used as signal words.

i. Frequency: i.e. often, sometimes, always

Example: We often had no school during COVID.

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ii. A definite point in time: i.e. yesterday, six days ago, on Tuesday last week

Example: A lot of students had the flu on Tuesday last week.

iii. An indefinite point in time: i.e. the other day, ages ago, a long time ago, last week

Example: The other day I saw the dean posting an announcement on the notice board.

III. Simple Past Tense Uses

1) To describe a completed action at a specific time in the past

Examples:

 Last month, Hayat Medical College started 2023 academic year.

 Abiy Ahmed came to power five years ago.
 Mr. Sintayehu gave us an assignment last Monday.
2) To describe a completed action in a period of time in the past.

Example:

 The graduating batch attended medical school for 6 years.

 We attended class from Monday to Friday.
 We learned Communicative English from 1 PM to 3PM on Monday
3) To describe events that happen one after the other in the past

Example:

 First the teacher introduced the lesson, and then he started his lecture.
 Last week I came to campus and then went to visit family.
 He finished his chores after he did his homework.
4) Referring to an action that was true for some time in the past

Example:

 Karthik played tennis when he was in school.

 Miss Holly worked as a guest lecturer at our college.
 Santana used to love reading fantasy novels when she was younger.

IV. Form of Simple Past’s Verbs

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The simple past tense verbs divide in two great part. There is on the one hand that the spelling of
the verbs remains the same as its infinitive and just takes an “ed” or “d” at the end that we call
regular verbs. On the other hand the spelling of verbs changes completely, that we call
irregular verbs.

1. Regular verbs

If the verbs is a regular verbs, the method to form the simple past tense is relatively simple.
Typically, you would form the past tense as follows:
 Take the root or the infinitive form of the verb and add “ed” to the end.
 If the verb ends in “e”, you would just add a “d”. For example, the simple past tense
of look is looked, and the simple past tense of ignite is ignited.
 For verbs that end in “y”, the “y” usually changes to an “I” if it follows a consonant. For
example, the verb cry becomes cried but the verb play becomes played.
When we add subjects to the mix, things stay relatively simple. The simple past tense of the verb
remains the same regardless of if the subject is singular or plural or what person (first, second, or
third) it is:

 I jumped.
 We jumped.
 The lion jumped.

2. Irregular verbs

There are many irregular verbs in English that don’t follow the typical rules of regular verbs.
Unfortunately, there is no general rule for how to form the simple past tense in irregular verbs.
You will simply need to learn these verb forms (though there are some patterns) or use a
dictionary to figure out what the simple past tense is.
Here are just a few examples of the simple past tense of some irregular verbs (present form →
irregular past):

 fly → flew
 buy → bought
 think → thought

3. Verbs “to be”

A very commonly used irregular verb is the verb to be. Unlike all other verbs, the verb to
be does change in the simple past tense depending on if the subject is singular or plural. For
singular subjects, the simple past tense of be is was. For plural subjects (and singular you), the
simple past tense is were.

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 I was an artist.
 We were artists.

V. Different version of simple Past tense:

i. The Negative version
Almost all verbs follow the rules when it comes to making the simple past tense negative. In
order to make the simple past tense negative, you use the phrase did not before the root form of
the verb. The contraction didn’t can also be used.

The form includes: subject +did not/didn’t + Infinitive

Examples:

Simple Past Affirmative ................................... Simple Past Negative

We went to school every day............................. We didn’t go to school everyday

Argentina won the world cup in 2022............... Argentina didn’t win the world cup in 2022

He brought his video game................................ He didn’t bring his video game

ii. Question version

If you need to ask a question about an event in past, you can use the following word order for a
yes/no question:

1) Question with “did”

The form includes: did+ subject+ infinitive?

Examples:

 Did the instructor assign a task?

 Did you finish the project?

2) Questions with Was/Were:

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The form includes: was/were+ subject+ infinitive?

Examples:

 Was she in class yesterday?

 Were they fighting an hour ago?

3) Question with question-word (Why, Where, What, When, Who):

The form includes: Question-word+ subject+ infinitive?

Examples:

 Where did you attend medical school?

 What did you accomplish in medical school?

VI. Comparison with other past tenses

While all the past tenses talk about things that happened in the past, the all have a clearly
differences. We use the past to talk about events, states or habits at definite time in the past,
while the others talk about:

 Contrary to simple past, we use past continuous to talk about events and
temporary states that were in progress around a certain time in the past.
Example: Last night, I was cooking dinner when you called.
 The past perfect talks about something that occurred before another past event or
action.
Example: She had packed her stuff before she took the train.
 We use the past perfect continuous to talk about actions that continued for a
period of time before another action or situation in the past.
Example: I had been waiting for Susan for two hours when she arrived

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