Pastrule.htm

ESL BLUE(s)

Formation of Past Tense

KEY: To help you understand the structure of the sentence:

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.

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. (See for yourself. Click here.)
- 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?

Watch out! We rarely use the present perfect to refer to past events.

For troubleshooting quizzes on the present perfect go to the main index.

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