Objective of The Study
Meanwhile Evelyn and and Robert said that almost all verbs, form their past tense by adding the suffix
–ed. These verbs are called regular verbs. Some verbs, however, do not follow this pattern. These verbs a0re called irregular verbs. Some
examples of irregular verbs are: see past tense saw, write past tense wrote, and hit past tense to describe imaginary hit.
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Very often the simple past ends in –ed: I enjoyed the party last night, the
police stopped me on my way home last night . But many important verbs are
irregular. This means that the simple past does not end in –ed:
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Leave left Go went
According to Murphy and friends in Grammar in Use, the past of verb be am, is, are is waswere:
Ihesheit was weyouthey were
I was angry they were late In simple past questions and negatives we use diddidn‟t + the base form
doopen, etc: It rained Did it rain? It didn‟t rain
Meanwhile as Lado stated in Practical Complete English Grammar, the structures of simple past are below:
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Positive. Structure: Subject + verb 2
For example: a. My brother watched a football match last night
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Evelyn P Alternberg, Robert M. Vago. English Grammar: Understanding the Basics. UK: Cambridge University Press, 2010, pp. 157-158
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Raymond Murphy, RoannAliman. Grammar in Use. New York: Cambridge Univrsity, Press, p. 22
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M.J Lado. A Practical Complete English Grammar. Jakarta: TitikTerang, 2004, pp. 6 –7.
b. Last month my father visited his parents
Negative. Structure: Subject + did not + verb 1
For example: a. John did not go to school yesterday b. I didn‟t see him at the meeting last night
Interrogative. Structure: Did + Subject + verb 1
For example: a. Did she tell you about her trip last week? -
Yes, She did -
No. She didn‟t b. did he phone you last night?
- Yes, he did. - No, he
didn‟t. Based on the classification and formulation which is given above, the writer
formulates the form of simple past tense into three types, they are affirmative, negative and interrogative.