imaginary past happenings is a well-established convention ”.
4
The simple past itself is irrelevant with the activities happen in the present. The activities are
already finished before the moment. As Danesi stated, “The Simple past, also known as the Preterit allows you to refer to actions that occurred in the past
without reference to the present ”.
5
All and all the simple past tense is a tense which shows activities happened and ended in a particular time in the past before the moment without
having to refer to the present time. It is also used for repeated activities happen in the past.
a. The Form of the Simple Past Tense
As it already know that the simple past tense has two types in its verb form, namely regular and irregular verbs. Beside it is also including verb of be. As
Kirn et.all.stated, the simple past tense classified into two types. They are the simple past in the regular verbs and simple past in the irregular verbs including
past tense of the verb be. The formula of each type consists of three parts: affirmative, negative and interrogative.
6
The regular verbs is the verbs formed by adding the suffix –ed and the
irregular verbs is not follow that pattern. As Thomson and Martinet explain about the verbs of the simple past form as
, “The simple past in regular verb is formed by adding
–ed to the infinitive and verb ending in –e is adding –d only the negative of regular verb and irregular verb is formed with did not
didn’t and the infinitive. The interrogative of regular and irregular verb is formed with did +
subject + infinitive ”.
7
4
Douglas Bieber, Stiq Johanson, Geoffry Leech, Susan Conrad and Edward Finegan, Longman: Grammar of Spoken and Written English, London: Pearson Education Limited, 1999,
p. 454.
5
Marcel Danesi, Basic American Grammar and Usage , New York: Barron’s
Educational Series, Inc., 2006, p. 139.
6
Elaine Kirn, Darcy Jack and Jill Korey O’Sullivan, Interaction Grammar I, New York: McGraw Hill Company, Inc., 2002, p. 106.
7
A. J. Thomson and A. V. Martinet, A Practical English Grammar, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990, pp. 175
—176.
It can be seen that in the simple past tense, there are two verbs that is used; Regular and Irregular verbs in the past form of verbs. Besides, the formulas used
in the simple past tense have three parts: affirmative, negative and interrogative.
1. The Simple Past Tense in a Regular Verb
The regular verbs of the simple past is formed by adding –ed in the end of
the verbs. The forms are applicable to all subjects including singular and plural except in the verb of be. Hence, though the verbs end with
–ed, the spelling of the verb has a different rules. Several verbs may have a really same rule with others in
regular verbs, but it can be applied to all of the verbs. Here are a brief summary of
the rules according to Danesi: Table 2.1
Rule of Regular Verbs Form Table
Rules Example
Infinitive Past
1. Verb ends in –e just add –d
Love Tie
Change Live
Loved Tied
Changed Lived
2. Infinitive contains a single syllable and ends in a single vowel + consonant,
the consonant is doubled Stop
Spot Plan
Stopped Spotted
Planned
3. The ending verb is preceded by another consonant or more than one
vowel, doubling doesn’t apply Jump
Learn Dream
Jumped Learned
Dreamed
4. The infinitive contains two syllables, doubling applies only if the second
syllable is stressed Prefer
Control Permit
Occur Regret
Preferred Controlled
Permitted Occurred
Regretted
5. The infinitive root ends in –y and is
preceded by consonant, the simple past ending is written as
–ied Try
Study Carry
Dry Tried
Studied Carried
Dried
8
8
Marcel Danesi, op. cit., p. 140.
a The Affirmative Form of the Simple Past Tense in Regular Verb
The affirmative sentence in the simple past tense use the formulas as:
S + V2 + ……
For example:
- I dreamed of you last night - They went to Bandung last weekend
- We listened to rock music yesterday - Cintya bought some apples
All of the subject use the same form of the regular verb that is adding the –d and or –ed at the end of the verb.
b The Negative Form of the Simple Past Tense in Regular Verb
As Danesi has stated that the negative form of the simple past tense is created with
did not didn’t + infinitive. The formulas is as:
S + did not didn’t + V1 + ……
For example: - I
didn’t bring my book this morning
- You
didn’t come last week
- They
didn’t win the match
- Santi
didn’t call me yesterday
- Joni
didn’t enjoy the movie
- We
didn’t attend to Lisa’s party
- She
didn’t eat any of the foods last night c The Interrogative Form of the Simple Past Tense in Regular Verb
The interrogative form of the regular verb in simple past tense is as Danesi also said on her book, constructed with did did not + subject +
infinitive, so the formula is as:
diddid not didn’t + subject + verb 1 + …
