The Verb in Past Tense
In a simple past tense sentence, the verb shows past time. It tells the completion of an action in the past. Therefore, in this tense, we should use verbs in the past tense.
For that, you should know the forms of verbs given in the lesson forms of the verb.
Examples-
- She was present
- He came on time.
- They played football.
As in Simple Present Tense, we shall take one example with three persons of singular and a plural number in Past Simple Tense. In this tense, a verb is used in past form simply for any person.
Let’s have a look-
Person Singular Number Plural Number
1st I ate an apple. We ate an apple.
2nd You ate an apple. You ate an apple.
3rd He ate an apple. They ate an apple.
Formation of Simple Past Tense
As the simple present tense formation, we shall see the formation of sentences in the simple past tense. Somewhere we use only the form of to be and somewhere, the main verb in the past form. Let’s see how to form the sentences.
Form of ‘to be’
Now we have the formation using the form of ‘to be’ as;
Subject + form of ‘to be in the past + remaining words
Examples
Let’s have some examples-
- I was there.
- You were so happy then.
- They were very naughty.
- He was present for the lecture.
- She was sad due to failure in a competitive exam.
The past form of the main verb
Formation using the past form of the main verb as;
Subject + past form of main verb + remaining words
Examples
Here are some examples-
- She stayed (past form of stay) with us for two weeks.
- They enjoyed (past form of enjoy) the party at Juhu beach.
- He did (past form of do) his work very well.
- You did (past form of do) better that you left(past form of leave) that job.
You may like the links below related to past tense.
| past Continuous tense |
| Perfect tense past |
| past Perfect imperfect tense |
