By Dini Massitoh

 Simple past tense expresses the activities which began and ended in the past.  We use the simple past tense for something happened or an action in the past.  It usually uses adverbial of time such as yesterday, last night, two days ago, last week, etc.

1.Nominal Form I/he/she/itWas We/they/youWere FormPatternExamples +S + To Be (was/were) + adv I was hungry last night. -S + To Be + not + advYou were not happy yesterday. ?To Be + S + adv?Was she in the bookstore a week ago?

In the simple past tense, there are regular verbs and irregular verbs. a.Regular Verbs (add –d/-ed) In the regular verb, the base verb is added by –d/-ed at the end of the word to form the past tense. The spelling for the verb differs depending on the ending of that verb : 1.)If the verb ends in e, we just add –d. For examples : move – move d, please – please d, love – love d, etc. 2.)If the verb has a syllable and it ends in a consonant (except : C, W, X or Y) and it has a vowel before the consonant, so it must be doubled and then add –ed. For examples : clap – clap ped, trap – trap ped.

3.)If the verb has many syllables and it ends in a consonant after a vowel, so the consonant must be doubled and then add –ed. For examples : refer – referred, travel – travelled, submit – submitted. 4.)For verbs that end in a consonant + Y, we change the Y into I and add –ED. For examples : cry – cried, study – studied, carry – carried. FormPatternExamples +S + Verb 2 + advYou studied English last night. -S + did not + Verb 1 + advShe did not type a text. ?Did + S + Verb 1 + adv?Did they play the football?

b.Irregular Verbs are common verbs in English language that do not follow the simple system of adding “-d/ed” at the end of the word to form the past tense. We have to memorize it or see to the dictionary to know the past form of the verb. For examples : go – went, freeze – froze, bring – brought, etc. FormPatternExamples +S + Verb 2 + advI drank a glass of milk. -S + did not + Verb 1 + advHe did not bring my book. ?Did + S + Verb 1 + adv?Did we go to the market?

1.Azar, Betty Schrampfer. (1999). English Grammar : Third Edition. New York. Longman. 2.Eastwood, John. (2008). Oxford : Learner’s Pocket Grammar. UK. Oxford University Press. 3.Suryadi Junaidi, S.Pd. (2007). Complete English Grammar. Yogyakarta. Pustaka Belajar.