SoSe 2009© 2009, Lee Traynor, MA (Oxon) EfS Grammar II: Two Past Tenses – Simple and Continuous Telling stories about the past; relationships between past events.

SoSe 2009© 2009, Lee Traynor, MA (Oxon) EfS Grammar II: Two Past Tenses to be I was you were he/she/it was we were they were Regular verbs e.g. to publish I published you published he/she/it published we published they published Irregular verbs e.g. to go I went you went he/she/it went we went they went To have got: behaves like an ordinary irregular verb had. Simple - Affirmative

SoSe 2009© 2009, Lee Traynor, MA (Oxon) EfS Grammar II: Two Past Tenses to be I was not you were not he/she/it was not we were not they were not Regular and irregular verbs e.g. to go I did not go you did not go he/she/it did not go we did not go they did not go To have got: behaves like an ordinary verb did not have. Simple - Negative

SoSe 2009© 2009, Lee Traynor, MA (Oxon) EfS Grammar II: Two Past Tenses to be was I? were you? was he/she/it? were we? were they? Regular and irregular verbs e.g. to classify did I classify? did you classify? did he/she/it classify? did we classify? did they classify? To have got: behaves like an ordinary verb did... have? Simple – Interrogative

SoSe 2009© 2009, Lee Traynor, MA (Oxon) EfS Grammar II: Two Past Tenses  Normally: Just add –ed.  Doubling: Short words ending in consonant- vowel-consonant double the final consonant.  Final –e: Words ending in –e just add –d.  Final –y: Consonant –y changes to –ied. Vowel –y goes to –yed.  Pronunciation: Words ending in –d and –t receive an additional syllable (ıd). Simple – Spelling and Pronunciation

SoSe 2009© 2009, Lee Traynor, MA (Oxon) EfS Grammar II: Two Past Tenses Affirmative (Negative) I was (not) doing you were (not) doing he/she/it was (not) doing we was (not) doing they was (not) doing Interrogative was I doing? were you doing? was he/she/it doing? were we doing? were they doing? Form: past tense of "to be" + present participle (-ing form). Continuous – All Forms

SoSe 2009© 2009, Lee Traynor, MA (Oxon) EfS Grammar II: Two Past Tenses Present participle - Spelling  The final consonant may be doubled: Mainly in one-syllable verbs ending with consonant-vowel-consonant, e.g. stop – stopping.  Words ending in –ie: -ie changes to –y, e.g. lie – lying.  Words ending in –e: final –e is dropped, e.g. make – making. Present participles are formed by adding -ing

SoSe 2009© 2009, Lee Traynor, MA (Oxon) EfS Grammar II: Two Past Tenses Past simple is used: Simple – Use  to carry the sequence of verbs of action in a manner resembling points in time past; use may also imply cause and effect;  with verbs of state.

SoSe 2009© 2009, Lee Traynor, MA (Oxon) EfS Grammar II: Two Past Tenses I did the same with the case closed by a plate of aluminum in which I put a photographic plate and then on the outside a crust of the uranium salt. The whole was enclosed in an opaque box, and then in a drawer. After five hours, I developed the plates, and the silhouettes of the crystalline crusts appeared in black [...]. Becquerel (1896) Simple - Example

SoSe 2009© 2009, Lee Traynor, MA (Oxon) EfS Grammar II: Two Past Tenses Past continuous is used:  to express incompleteness with verbs of action (hence “progressive” meaning actions in progress or “imperfect” meaning actions not completed at a point of time in the past). Continuous - Use Point of time Incomplete action

SoSe 2009© 2009, Lee Traynor, MA (Oxon) EfS Grammar II: Two Past Tenses Past continuous (background event) Past simple (interrupting an action) Past simple (sequence of events) Relationship Between Simple and Continuous In 1903 Nature sent Johns Hopkins University physicist Robert W. Wood, who was attending a scientific conference in Britain […] Hines (1996)

SoSe 2009© 2009, Lee Traynor, MA (Oxon) EfS Grammar II: Two Past Tenses I went to the window and it rained. Get that person on the plane to Sydney! I opened the door. A man was standing there. He was saying he was the postman. The whole time: “I am the postman. I am the postman. I am the postman…” We saw that it was a little boy who drowned. Bad luck, end of story. What is wrong with … ?

SoSe 2009© 2009, Lee Traynor, MA (Oxon) EfS Grammar II: Two Past Tenses Becquerel, A.H. (1896): On the rays emitted by phosphorescence. Comptes Rendus 122, 420, translated by Carmen Giunta and available at his site: faculty/giunta/becquerel.html, accessed October 26, Alternative citation style: lemoyne.edu Hines, T. (1996): What Ever Happened to n- Rays? Skeptic 4.4, 85. References