The Stages of Error Analysis

time, such as last week, at the weekend, etc. In telling stories and describing what happened in the past we use the past simple as a „time anchor‟ – to establish the key „time frame‟ of events. 18 This statement is also supported by Betty Schrampfer Azar. She said that “The simple past tense indicates that an activity or situation began and ended at a particular time in the past” 19 . The simple past tense can be used to give the information of the time. In A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar ‟s book said that “Past time is understood as time proceeding the time of speaking” 20 . The simple past tense is also called “time anchor” because the simple past tense can show the time when the action happen. The simple past tense can be used to talk about completed past events and activities. 21 The way about how to tell activities in the past time, using this tense is the right way. The form of most verbs in the simple past tense by adding –ed in the ending of the verbs in singular and also plural form, it is called by “regular verbs” and “irregular verb” for which has changes in the verb. “Regular verbs are those in which the past tense and the past participle are formed by adding the suffix –ed or in a few cases, -t to the base form.” 22 From that statement, the regular verbs can be marked by the ending of the verb; suffix –ed. With suffix –ed, it is easier to know this regular verbs. From A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar’s book, regular verb is “one whose inflectional forms are all predictabl e by general rule.” 23 The form of all regular verbs can be predicted because there is the general rule which can be used as a reference. 18 Martin Parrot, Grammar for English Language Teachers Second Edition, Britain: Cambridge University Press, 2010, p. 219-210. 19 Betty Schrampfer Azar, Understanding and UsingEnglish Grammar 3 rd Edition, New York: Pearson Education, 1999, p. 27. 20 Rodney Huddleston, A Student’s Introduction to English Grammar, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005 p. 44. 21 Ibid. 22 Martha Kolln Robert Funk, Understanding English Grammar Eight Edition, New York: Pearson Education Inc., 2010, p. 68. 23 Huddleston, op.cit., p. 33. In the certain verbs, there are also changes in the verbs; they are called “irregular verbs”. “An irregular verb, by contrast, is one where the shape of at least one inflectional form has to be specified for the particular verb.” 24 The dictionary helps to find the irregular verbs because the form of the verbs can‟t be predicted. The writer may conclude that regular verbs have their clear rules, but the irregular verbs don‟t have the rules, but they can be found in the list of irregular verbs or dictionary. Like John Langan said in his book, “Almost everyone has some degree of trouble with irregular verbs. When you are unsure about the form of the verb, you can check the following list of irregular verbs, or you can check a dictionary, which gives the principal parts of irregular verbs.” 25 The examples below show the rules of statement with simple past tense. 1. We listened to music after dinner. 2. The teacher taught the student in the class yesterday. The examples above show the rules of the regular and irregular verb. The first example uses the regular verb “listened”. It is easy to identify regular verb. As the explanation before, the regular verb can be known by the ending of the verb; suffix –ed. The second example uses the irregular verb, “taught”. It is quite hard to identify the irregular verb because the form of irregular verb cannot be predicted. It is needed to see the list of irregular verb on the dictionary to know about it. “If the verb is irregular, the dictionary will list the principal for you. If there are no principal parts given, form the past and past participle using the regular method”. On the other word, if the 24 Ibid., p. 34. 25 John Langan, Sentence Skills A Workbook for Writers 7 th Edition, New York: McGraw-Hill, 2003, p. 164. dictionary can‟t show the principal or form of the irregular verbs, the principal of regular verbs can be used with adding –ed at the end of the verbs. In the negative past tense statement, the verbs can be added by “didn’t or did not ” before the simple form of the main verbs. The examples of negative form of the simple past tense below, explain the rules clearer. My roommate didn’t like that restaurant. I didn’t live in a dorm last year. The examples above show the rules of the negative past tense statement. There are didn’t before the simple form of the main verb, like and live. The past tense verb is not used in writing negative past tense statement because to indicate the statement is past tense, it is marked by didn’t. Beside the irregular verbs, there is also irregular be . “The only English verb with more than five forms is be, the most irregular of our irregular verbs. It is also the only verb with a separate form for the infinitive, or base be; it is the only one with three forms for present tense am, is, are and two for past tense was, were….” 26 The verb be in the past tense only has two forms; they are was and were. Was for the singular, and were for the plural. There are many changes in spelling rules of the simple past tense that should be known by everyone. Spelling rules for the simple past tense verbs regular verb: 1. If a simple form of a verb ends in –y after a consonant, change the –y to i and add –ed Examples: trytried carrycarried drydried 2. If the simple form of a one syllable verbs ends in a consonant + a vowel + a consonant, double the consonant and add –ed. Example: planplanned Exception: do not double final w, x or y. example: rowrowed 26 Kolln,, op. cit., p. 69.