Did
subject
infinitive without to
Did
she
arrive...?
Interrogative negative
Did not
subject
infinitive without to
Didn't
you
like..?
Example: to walk, simple past.
Affirmative
Negative
Interrogative
I walked
I didn't walk
Did I walk?
You walked
You didn't walk
Did you walk?
He,she,it walked
He didn't walk
Did he walk?
We walked
We didn't walk
Did we walk?
You walked
You didn't walk
Did you walk?
They walked
They didn't walk
Did they walk?
Note: For the negative and interrogative form of all verbs in the simple past, always use the auxiliary 'did''.
Examples: Simple past, irregular verbs
to go
a. He went to a club last night.
b. Did he go to the cinema last night?
c. He didn't go to bed early last night.
to give
d. We gave her a doll for her birthday.
e. They didn't give John their new address.
f. Did Barry give you my passport?
to come
g. My parents came to visit me last July.
h. We didn't come because it was raining.
i. Did he come to your party last week?
2. Simple past, function
The simple past is used to talk about a completed action in a time before now. Duration is not important. The time of the action can be in the recent past or the distant past.
John Cabot sailed to America in 1498.
My father died last year.
He lived in Fiji in 1976.
We crossed the Channel yesterday.
You always use the simple past when you say when something happened, so it is associated with certain past time expressions
Examples:
frequency:
often, sometimes, always;
a definite point in time:
last week, when I was a child, yesterday, six weeks ago.
an indefinite point in time:
the other day, ages ago, a long time ago etc.
Note: the word ago is a useful way of expressing the distance into the past. It is placed after the period of time e.g. a week ago, three years ago, a minute ago.
Examples:
a. Yesterday, I arrived in Geneva.
b. She finished her work at seven o'clock.
c. We saw a good film last week.
d. I went to the theatre last night.
e. She played the piano when she was a child.
f. He sent me a letter six months ago.
g. Peter left five minutes ago. |