A Guide to Past Tense Verbs
Presented By
Delora, Kathy, and Clarine
The word "tense" comes from Latin tempus,
meaning time. In grammar, "tense" refers to the
form of the verb itself:
• Tense indicates completeness or continuance. If
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the event is complete, it's past; if the event isn't
complete, it's present.
We use past tense (preteritum) to tell about
something that happened at a specific time in
the past, or to tell about something that
happened repeatedly in the past.
The simple past tense is one of the most common tenses in
English. Its form is the same with all subjects. It is usually
formed by adding -ED to the verb. This page will explain the
rules for forming the tense with regular verbs.
*The simple past tense regular verbs, are created just by
adding -D or -ED. However, with some verbs, you need to
also change the ending.
Here are some examples:
• Verb ending in e, Add –D live - lived
• Consonant + y Change y to i, then add –ED try - tried
• One vowel + one consonant (but NOT w or y)
Double the consonant, then add –ED tap tapped
commit – committed
• [anything else] Add –ED boil – boiled , fill – filled
When the verb in the independent
clause is the past tense, the verb in the
dependent clause is usually in a past
tense as well. The past tenses are: the
simple past, the past progressive, the
past perfect, and the past perfect
progressive.
When you are writing about a subject, be sure to
keep it in the same tense throughout your paper.
Do This:
• I saw a bear climb a tree, and then I wrote
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about him.
Jenny mixed the cake, while I whipped the
frosting.
Do Not Do This:
I saw a bear climb a tree, and then I write about
him.
Jenny mixes the cake, while I whipped the
frosting.
The simple past tense
• Last year, I traveled to Japan.
• They never went to school; they always skipped.
• I finished work, walked to the beach, and found
a nice place to swim.
In the simple past tense, negative and question forms are
made using the auxiliary verb "do" (in its past form, "did")
followed by the simple form of the main verb.
This page explains the rules.
• Simple past statement : I had a car.
You ate my toast.
• Informal negative : I didn't have a car.
You didn't eat my toast.
• Formal negative : I did not have a car.
You did not eat my toast.
The past perfect refers to a time earlier than before now.
It is used to make it clear that one event happened before
another in the past. It does not matter which event is
mentioned first - the tense makes it clear which one
happened first.
• I had saved my document before the
computer crashed.
• When they arrived, we had already
started cooking.
• The train had just left when I arrived at
the station.
The past progressive tense is commonly used in English for actions
which were going on (had not finished) at a particular time in the past.
This page will explain the rules for forming the past progressive tense,
and how it is used.
Subject BE-ING FORM Examples:
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I was singing.
You were singing.
He was singing.
We were singing.
They were singing.
Definition: The Perfect Progressive tense is used to
express the time that has elapsed between two
points in time. The Past Perfect Progressive
expresses the time elapsed between the beginning
of a continuous action that began in the past and
another point in time in the past.
• The police had been looking for the robber for
two months before they finally found him.
• Before the budget cuts, the students had been
participating in many extracurricular activities.
Past Tense Verbs
Regular versus Irregular
How to Identify Them
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* REGULAR VERBS:
The regular verbs show past tense simply by adding “d” or “ed”
such as:
care becomes cared and talk becomes talked. This is also true of
the past participles for regular verbs as there is no change in their
spelling
*Examples of regular verbs, (simple past):
They played football all day.
He pitched a perfect baseball game.
Debbie cared for three babies.
The children jumped rope until lunchtime.
*Examples of regular verbs, (past participles with their
helping verbs):
They have played football all day.
He has pitched a perfect baseball game.
Debbie has cared for three babies.
The children have jumped rope all day.
Irregular Verbs
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IRREGULAR VERBS:
The irregular verbs are verbs that change in spelling to show their
past tense. Mastering the spelling of these irregular verbs must be
done by repetition and studying. Their past participle is usually
another spelling of the verb and needs a helping verb such as:
have, having, has or had. The main verb with the helping verb
forms a perfect tense.
*Examples of irregular verbs, (simple past):
More customers ate here today than Saturday.
Students spoke at the convention last month.
The flowers grew beautifully in the garden.
She drank all of the orange juice.
*Examples of irregular verbs (past participles) with their
helping verbs, (past perfect tense):
More customers have eaten here today than Saturday.
Students have spoken at the convention in the past.
The flowers have grown beautifully in the garden.
She has drunk all of the orange juice.
Works Cited
• Rodrigues, Dawn, and Myron C. Tuman. Writing
Essentials. 2nd ed. New York: W. W.
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Norton and Co. Inc., 1999.
Aaron, Jane E. The Little, Brown Essential
Handbook for Writers. 2nd ed. New York:
Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers, Inc.,
1997.
Boyd, Mark D. Personal interview. September
28, 2005.
Works Cited
“Past Perfect Progressive.” My English Teacher. 2002. 15 Dec. 2005
<www.myenglishteacher.net/past_perfect_progressive.html>.
“Summary of Verb Tenses.” Leo Literacy Education Online. 22 Sept.
2000. 15 Dec. 2005.
<http://leo.stcloudstate.edu/grammar/tenses.html>.
"Forming the Simple Present Tense." English Language Center Study
Zone. 1998-1999. 15 Dec. 2005.
<http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/studyzone/330/grammar/pres.htm>.
Fulwiler ,Toby, Hayakawa, Alan R. The College Writer’s Reference 3rd
Ed. 2001
Works Cited
• Basic Rules Verbs: Past Tense. 2000. 15 Dec. 2005.
<www.stolaf.edu/depts/norwegian/grammar/pasttense.htm>.
• "Grammar, Punctuation and Spelling." Online
Writing Lab. 2004. 15 Dec. 2005.
<http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/grammar/>.
• “Online English Grammar.” edufind.com. 2005 15 Dec.
2000.
<www.edufind.com/english/grammar/Tenses11.cfm>