25
Based on the example above, it can be seen that the verb in negative form use the simple form V1, then the use of did not is before
the main verb. 3.
The last type of formula of simple past tense in regular verb is interrogative. The formula is as following:
Did didn’t + S + V1 + O + Adverbs ?
For example: -
Did she watch movie last night? -
Did not he play game this morning? -
Did they climb Slamet mountain two weeks ago? The examples above show that in the interrogative form, the verb
used is V1, in other words there is no ending –ed in the verb in question
form. b.
The Simple Past in Irregular Verb
In the irregular verbs, there is no an –ed ending in the past form.
They have different ways in changing past form. As the regular verb, the irregular verb follow the same pattern in affirmative, negative, and
interrogative. The following table is the example of irregular verb past form based on Elaine Kim and Darcy Jack’ classification.
Table 2.3 The past form of Irregular Verb is formed in different ways
.
38
Example Simple
Form Past
Form Simple
Form Past
Form Note
Cost Cut
Hit Hurt
Cost Cut
Hit Hurt
Let Put
Quit Shut
Let Put
Quit Shut
The simple
and the
past forms of
38
Elaine Kirn and Darcy Jack, Interactions I Grammar, 4th ed., New York: McGraw- Hill,2011,p.116.
26
the verbs are
the same.
Bend Build
Lend Bent
Built Lent
Send Spend
Sent spent
With some
verbs, the simple
forms end in
–d and the
past forms
ends in –t
Dream Have
Hear Dreamt
Had heard
Lose Make
Lost made
Some verbs
have other
consonant changes
or add a consonant
in the
past form Begin
Bleed Come
Choose Drink
Drive Eat
Fall Began
Bled Came
Chose Drunk
Drove Ate
Fell Grow
Know Ride
Ring Run
Sing Take
Tear Grew
Knew Rode
Rang Ran
Sang Took
Tore Many
verbs have
vowel changes
in the
past tense.
27
Find Get
Found got
Throw Win
Threw won
Be Bring
Buy Catch
Creep Do
Fly Go
Keep Waswere
Brought Bought
Caught Crept
Did Flew
Went kept
Leave Lie
Pay Say
Sell Sleep
Teach Tell
Think Left
Lay Paid
Said Sold
Slept Taught
Told taught
Many verbs
have consonant
and vowel
changes in
the past
tense.
The table above shows partly of irregular verb, for more detail, in the Oxford Dictionary, there are 198 common irregular verbs.
39
As the statement above that in the irregular verbs the pattern of affirmative,
negative and interrogative are same with regular verbs, the explanation will explain more detail about the pattern.
1.
Affirmative S + verb2 + .....
Example : -
I bought some foods -
She got an accident last night 2.
Negative
S + did not + Verb 1 + .....
Example : -
I did not meet her after lunch yesterday -
She did not get an accident last night
39
Oxford Dictionary, New York: Oxford University Press,2008,p.520.
28
3. Interrogative
Diddid not + S +Verb 1 + .....
Example : -
Did you meet her yesterday? Yes I did No, I didn’t
- Did she get an accident last night? Yes, she did No, she didn’t
- Did they go to the concert?
Yes, they did No, they didn’t
c.
Simple Past with to be
To be is different from all other verbs in changing to the past form. In the present tense, we use am, is, are as to be. The past of the verb be
am, is, are is was were. This rule based on Robert Krohn who said that was or were are the past tense forms of be and use was with first and third
person singular, were with other persons.
40
I She He It was We You They were
The brief explanation of using to be in the affirmative, question, and negative can be seen in the following table:
Table 2.4 Form with to be
41
Question word
Subject Was
were +not
or +n’t
Object Complement
Affirmative She
was late
Question Where
were the
knives Negative
We weren’t
alone
40
Robert Krohn, English Sentence Structure, USA: The Univesity of Michigan Press, 1970,p.23.
41
Martin Parrott, Grammar for English Language Teachers, New York: Cambridge University Press,2000,p.184.
29
3. Use of Simple Past Tense
The use of simple past tense can be clasified as follow according Martin Parrot in his book Grammar for English language Teacher.
a. Finished Periods of time
Martin Parrot says “the past simple is one of tenses used to refer to completed events, states or
actions”.
42
It means, we choose simple past tense when we think that the event or action took place within a finished period of
time. The period of time usually used are last week, yesterday, in 1972, three years ago, etc.
Example : I went to the party last week. Did you go to the party on Sunday?
From the examples above, it is obvious that the period of time is finished and the action is completed.
b. Precise detail The use of past simple is to provide precise circumtantial detail
about an event. Newspaper reports often introduce a description of an event using the present perfect tense but then drift into the past simple as
more detail accumulates. Example : I’ve had my appendix out in Warsaw.
In the sentence above, we have to use the past simple as soon as we specify, for example, where or how-
so that we don’t say “I’ve had my appendix out in Warsaw but I had my appendix out in Warsaw.
c. Time Anchor “In telling stories and describing what happened in the past we
use the past simple as a „time anchor’- to establish they key „time frame’ of events. We also use the past simple to describe the key events that move
the story forward. We use other tenses notably the past perfect and past continuous to show the relationship of other events to this
“time frame’.”
43
42
Ibid.,p.185.
43
Ibid.
30
d. Different Kinds of events
Some languages use different tenses for different kinds of past events e.g. „momentary’ as opposed to „extended over a period of time’ or
„repeated’. In English, simple past tense can be used for many kinds of
events. According to the explanation above, it is clear that the past tense of
verbs forms can be used in a number of ways. The most common function of past tense is clearly to refer to completed situations presented as
occuring before the time of speaking. For instance in this sentence : we were at the last meeting. That statement imply that the situation occur
before no
E. Previous Studies
Some studies dealing with this study were done by Irmawati and Herlinawati. The short explanations of those studies are explained in the
following section. Some studies dealing with this study were done by Irmawati and
Herlinawati. The short explanations of those studies are explained in the following section.
Irmawati, conducted case study on error analysis on tenses learnt. Irmawati focused on the error made by the students in learning tenses
especially in the usage of four tenses; simple present tense, simple past tense, present continuous tense and past continuous tense. The purpose of this study
was to identify the common error and their causes test made by students and she used test as an instrument to obtain the data. The method which is used by
Irmawati is descriptive analysis. Her resultin her study is the highest frequency of error is Simple Past and the lowest frequency of error is Present
Continuous Tense
44
. However, my study conducted An Error Analysis on Students’s Simple
PastTense Mastery in their Narrative Text, a case study at the Eleventh Grade
44
Irmawati, “Error Analysis On Tenses Learnt”
31
Students of SMAN 4 BEKASI. The study purposed to know the errors made by the students and why the students’ made from error in using simple past
tense in their writing narrative text. In this study the writer used test and interview as instrument, and to analyze the data the writer used descriptive
qualitative method. Herlinawati, conducted case study on error analysis in the students
writing narrative paragraph. The purpose of this study is to know the common errors in narrative writing using simple past tense made by students and she
used test as an instrument to obtain the data. The method which is used by Herlinawati is descriptive qualitative method. Her resultin her study is the
highest frequency of error is Misformation and the lowest frequency of error is Misordering
45
. However, my study conducted An Error Analysis on Students’s simple
PastTense Mastery in their Narrative Text, a case study at the Eleventh Grade Students of SMAN 4 BEKASI. The study purposed to know the errors made
by the students and why the students’ made from error in using simple past tense in their writing narrative text. In this study the writer used test and
interview as instrument, and to analyze the data the writer used descriptive qualitative method.
45
Herlinawati, “Error Analysis In The Students writing Narrative Paragraph”.
32
CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter presents the time and place of research, data and data source, the method of the research, the technique of collecting data, and the technique of
data analysis.
A. The Time and Place of the Research
The research took place at SMAN 4 BEKASI located at Bekasi. The writer has conducted from 11
– 12 November 2013
B. Data and Data Source
The data of this research were error made by the students in their written test of Past Tense.
The data source was the free writing test with theme “My Holiday” given to the students. It consists of 75 words or more than that in one
paragraph. The test were distributed to 26 students of class XI IPS 3 of SMAN 4
BEKASI.
C. The Method of the Research
The method of this research is descriptive analysis. It is used to des
cribe the students’ errors. First, the writer gave the Narrative writing test to the students in the classroom. Second, the writer collected the students’ test
then analyzed them by des cribing the precentage of students’ errors in the
form and in the usage of simple past tense. The last, the writer interpreted the data about what are the most errors that the students made
