 |
ESL | Using the |
|---|---|---|
| Blues | Past Tense |
KEY: To help you understand the structure of the sentence:
- the subject of the sentence is in italics,
- verb forms are in blue,
- and the direct object is in bold text.
| Questions | Responses |
|---|---|
| Who organized the party? | Bill organized it. |
| Who did he invite? | He invited all his friends and colleagues. |
| How many people went? | About thirty people went. |
| Did you enjoy yourself? | Yes, I enjoyed myself very much. (Yes, I did.) |
| What time did you leave? | I left around midnight. |
| Were you alone? | No, I wasn't alone. I was with Elisabeth. |
| Why didn't you stay longer? | I didn't stay longer because I was tired. |
Use the past tense forms (listened, cried, saw, was/were etc.)
- in affirmative statements:
- She saw the movie and she liked it.
- in questions when the question word (who, what, how much/many, which) is the subject:
- Who saw the accident?
- What happened exactly?
- How many people went to hospital?
- in all cases (affirmative, negative, interrogative) with the verb "TO BE"
- --Were you and Bob at the party?
-- I was there, but Bob wasn't.
- --Were you and Bob at the party?
Use the base form of the verb (the infinitive without "to) with the auxiliary 'did'
- to ask all other types of questions, that is, when the question words are not the subject of the sentence:
- Did you see the accident?
- How many people did they take to the hospital?
- What did the policemen and the paramedics do?
- to form the past tense negative:
- I didn't see the accident?
- They didn't take anybody to the hospital?
- Why didn't the police do something?
- Yesterday I saw an accident.
- Yesterday I have seen an accident.
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