Section outline

  • Past Tense expresses actions that have already happened.

    Examples:

    1. Tom played in the garden.
    2. They ran home.
    Auxiliary Verbs used in Past Tense:
    Subjects Verb Examples
    I, He, she, it, singular nouns was I / he / she was late.
    We, you, they, plural nouns were We / they were hungry.
    For all Subjects had You had a car.

    • Rules to form past tense of a verb:
      Verbs Rule  Examples
      Most verbs Add ‘ed’ to base verb walk - walked, play - played
      End in ‘e’ Add ‘d’ to base verb bake - baked, agree - agreed
      End in ‘y’ Drop ‘y’ & add ‘ied’  try - tried, carry - carried
      End with a vowel & a consonant  Double the consonant & add ‘ed’ grab - grabbed, nod - nodded
      Irregular Verbs Don't follow rules sleep - slept, come - came

    • There are four types of past tense:

      Types of past tense

      Let's study each of them in detail.