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.