Tenses

Concept: Simple Past Tense

What is Tense?

• Tense is a verb that shows when an action happens.
• Depending on when an action happens, we can divide tenses into three types – a) Present tense, b) Past tense, c) Future tense.

Examples:

Present tense: I run every day.

Past tense: I ran yesterday.

Future tense: I will run tomorrow.

Look at the three examples. The verbs ‘run’, ‘ran’, and ‘will run’ in the sentences shows actions in the present, past, and future.

We have already learned about the present tense. In this lesson, we’ll talk about the past tense.

What is the Simple Past Tense?

1. The simple past tense is used to show an action that has already happened or has existed before now.
2. The action that was finished or completed at a particular time in the past and is over now, is written in the simple past tense.
3. It is also used to describe past habits.

Examples:

The verb ‘called’ in the sentence shows that the action already took place at a particular time in the past which is ‘yesterday’.

Making of the Simple Past Tense:

1. The “be verb” in a simple past tense changes its form depending on whether the subject is singular or plural.

a) Singular nouns and singular pronouns like ‘he’, ‘she’, ‘it’, and the personal pronoun ‘I’ are followed by ‘was’.

Examples:

1. I was not awake when you called me.
2. He was busy last night.
3. She was a good student.
4. It was cold yesterday.
5. Rahim was an artist.

2) In order to make simple past tense negative, we use ‘did not’ before the base verb and the verb form stays the same. The verb is written in the present form.

Examples:

1. We did not play cricket yesterday.
2. He did not talk to me.

3) Most of the past tense sentences are written in the manner given below. Add ‘-ed’ to the base verb to make it a simple past tense.

Examples:

1. Raghav played (play - ed) football yesterday.
2. He lived (live – d) in Canada.
3. I missed (miss – ed) my school days.
4. I learned (learn – ed) French last year.
5. I finished (finish – ed) my homework last night.

e) Add ‘-d’ to the base verb to write it in the simple past tense, if a verb ends with ‘-e’.

Examples:

1. Like – liked

I liked the blue dress in the shop.

2. Believe – believed

The policeman believed everything the robber said.

Common Mistake:

1. We can’t change all verbs into simple past by adding ‘d’ or ‘ed’. If a verb ends with ‘-y’ and the ‘-y’ is preceded by a consonant, the ‘-y’ usually changes to ‘-i’, and then we can add ‘ed’ to the word to make it simple past.

Examples:

cry – cried

• I cried last night because my brother broke my computer.
• I cryed last night because my brother broke my computer.

2. Some irregular verbs don’t show any change in their verb form when changed from the simple present tense to tense simple past tense.

Present	Past
cost	cost
fit	fit
put	put
shut	shut
cut	cut
hit	hit
hurt	hurt

Examples:

• I put my wallet on the table last night. Now I can’t find it.
• I putted my wallet on the table last night. Now I can’t find it

3. Some other verbs see a complete change in spelling when the verb form changes. Look at the examples given below:-

woke

Present	Past
go
rise	rose
see	saw
wake
come	came
drive	drove
stick	stuck
fight	fought

Examples:

• I woke up too early in the morning.
• I waked up too early in the morning.

Look at the mind map to have a better understanding of the concept.