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Past Perfect They had bought a motorcycle in the
showroom. Future perfect
Jack will have done his work by the end of this week.
Present Continuous Reza and Robi are reading the otomotive
magazine. Past Continuous
When you called me, I was listening to the radio.
Future Continuous We will be studying when you come.
Present Perfect Continuous I have been staying here since 1970
Past Perfect Continuous When I came to Surabaya in 1970, Rudi had
already been living there about six years. Future Perfect Continuous
By next Idul Fitri I shall have been working at this office for five years.
The perfect tense are formed by adding have, has or had to the past participle the form of the verb that ends, usually, in -ed. The continuous
tense are formed by adding am, is are, was, were to the present participle the form of verb that ends in -ing. The perfect progressive tense are
formed by adding have been, has been, or had been to the present participle.
D. Simple Past Tense
1. The definition of Simple Past Tense
There are several definitions of simple past tense based on grammarians’ statement. According to W.D.Bald, D.J. Cobb and
A.Schwarz in their book “Active Grammar”, the simple past is concerned
with spesific events which happened at certain time in the past
28
. This definition is similiar to Michael Swan in his book Practical English Usage
which states that “simple past tense is the most often used to talk about
28
W.D.Bald, D.J. Cobb A.Schwarz, Active Grammar England: Longman House, 1987,p. 52
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past. It can refer to short, quickly finished actions and events, to longer actions and situations, and to repeated happenings.
”
29
Azar describes that simple past tense can be formulated in diagram as follow:
Now
Certain Time Past
Future
Figure 2.1 Diagram of Simple Past Tense From diagram above she describes that simple past tense indicates
that an activity or situation began and ended at a particular time in the past.
30
In addition, to complete the definition about simple past tense, Marcela Frank
said “simple past tense represents definite time, it refers to events that were completed before the statement is made. It is often
accompained by such expression of definite past as yesterday, last year, two years ago,etc
31
. Besides the definite past as yesterday, last week, last month, two
years ago, etc. Simple past tense is formed with the past form of verb which may be either regular, by adding
–d or –ed to infinitive form or irregular which must be learned and memorized in each case.
From the definition above, the writer concludes that simple past tense is a form indicating the activity or situation in the past, before now
or at one particular time in the past, it began and ended in the past. Simple past tense is usually accompained by time signals such as: yesterday, last
week, two years ago,etc, and verb used is the past form of verb which has to be added
–d or –ed in the end of regular verb.
29
Michael Swan, Practical English Usage, Oxford University Press,1980,p.469
30
Betty Schramfer Azar, Understanding and Using English Grammar, 2nd ed.,New Jersey:Pretice-Hall, Inc.,1989,p. 24
31
Marcela Frank, Modern English: Exercise for Non-native Speakers, Part 1: Parts of Speech,New Jersey:Prentice Hall,Inc.,1972,p. 49
