Simple Past Tense

Explanation

1. The simple past tense is expressed with the past form of the verb and nothing else.

My grandfather died last year. My grandfather was died last year. My grandfather has died last year.

(Correct) (Incorrect) (Incorrect)

2. The simple past tense refers to

a. action which occurred at a specific time in the past
b. completed action
c. past status

Note the usage of the past tense in the following story.

Yesterday Mrs. Hubbard had a very rough day. In the morning, she went to the kitchen and looked in the cupboard for some food for her dog, but the cupboard was empty. Her poor dog stared up at her with its hungry eyes, and she knew she had to do something quickly. She hurried to the grocery store to buy some dog food, but unfortunately the store was out of her dog's favorite brand, so she had to catch a bus downtown. After buying the food, she waited for a half hour in the rain to get a taxi. When she finally got home, her dog was sound asleep on the living room sofa.

Common problems with the past tense

1. Using the present tense when the past tense is required.

Last week, Tonya fix her neighbor's car. Last week, Tonya fixed her neighbor's car.

(Incorrect) (Correct)

2. Using "was" with verbs in the past tense.

It was happened one night in September. It happened one night in September.

(Incorrect) (Correct)

Exercises

Change the verbs in the following sentence into past tense.

1. Yesterday, I go to the restaurant with a client.

2. We drive around the parking lot for 20 minutes in order to find a parking space.

3. When we arrive at the restaurant, the place is full.

4. The waitress asks us if we have reservations.

5. I say, "No, my secretary forgets to make them."

6. The waitress tells us to come back in two hours.

7. My client and I slowly walk back to the car.

8. Then we see a small grocery store.

9. We stop in the grocery store and buy some sandwiches.

10. That is better than waiting for two hours.

Correct the mistakes in the following sentences:

1. Last night, Samantha have pizza for supper.

2. My pet lizard was died last month.

3. Yesterday I spend two hours cleaning my living room.

4. This morning before coming to class, Jack eats two bowls of cereal.

5. What was happened to your leg?

A. Reading

Read the text carefully!

Indonesia

Indonesia is composed of seventeen thousand islands that stretch over five thousand miles along the equator. The Malay Peninsula and Indochina are situated to the north-west, and the continent of Australia lies due south. Northward lie the Philippines and Micronesia.

The world's largest archipelago, Indonesia's constellation of islands straddles the divide between the Asian and Australian continental plates. As a result, the islands offer a stunning variety of topographies and ecologies Mist-shrouded volcanoes and mountains, unexplored rain forests, thousands of miles of beaches, and endless offshore reefs support a dazzling abundance of wildlife, making Indonesia an ideal destination for adventure and eco-travel.

The great majority of the country's constituent islands are of negligible size, but it does hold--wholly or in part--several islands that are enormous. These include Sumatra, Kalimantan (formerly Borneo, and shared with Malaysia), Sulawesi, and Java. The Indonesian state of Irian Jaya occupies the western half of New Guinea, which is the world's second largest island (behind Greenland). The most populous of the Indonesian islands by far is Java, home to the sprawling capital city of Jakarta. Other notable islands include the exotic, popular resort island of Bali, Lombok, Catholic Flores, and Komodo, home of dragons.

There are two discernible seasons in Indonesia: the dry season, which extends from June to October, and the rainy season, which lasts from November to March. Both are hot. The coastal regions, however, are often cool, and in the mountains the air is often chilly.

Answer the question!

1. How many islands in Indonesia?
2. What do you think about Indonesia?
3. How many season in Indonesia?
4. What did you know about Indonesia? Please explain?
5. Mentions names of islands in Indonesia?

English Grammar Terms

English Grammar Terms

Active Voice
In the active voice, the subject of the verb does the action (eg They killed the President). See also Passive Voice.

Adjective
A word like big, red, easy, French etc. An adjective describes a noun or pronoun.

Adverb
A word like slowly, quietly, well, often etc. An adverb modifies a verb.

Article
The "indefinite" articles are a and an. The "definite article" is the.

Auxiliary Verb
A verb that is used with a main verb. Be, do and have are auxiliary verbs. Can, may, must etc are modal auxiliary verbs.

Clause
A group of words containing a subject and its verb (for example: It was late when he arrived).

Conjunction
A word used to connect words, phrases and clauses (for example: and, but, if).

Infinitive
The basic form of a verb as in to work or work.

Interjection
An exclamation inserted into an utterance without grammatical connection (for example: oh!, ah!, ouch!, well!).

Modal Verb
An auxiliary verb like can, may, must etc that modifies the main verb and expresses possibility, probability etc. It is also called "modal auxiliary verb".

Noun
A word like table, dog, teacher, America etc. A noun is the name of an object, concept, person or place. A "concrete noun" is something you can see or touch like a person or car. An "abstract noun" is something that you cannot see or touch like a decision or happiness. A "countable noun" is something that you can count (for example: bottle, song, dollar). An "uncountable noun" is something that you cannot count (for example: water, music, money).

Object
In the active voice, a noun or its equivalent that receives the action of the verb. In the passive voice, a noun or its equivalent that does the action of the verb.

Participle
The -ing and -ed forms of verbs. The -ing form is called the "present participle". The -ed form is called the "past participle" (for irregular verbs, this is column 3).

Part Of Speech
One of the eight classes of word in English - noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction and interjection.

Passive Voice
In the passive voice, the subject receives the action of the verb (eg The President was killed). See also Active Voice.

Phrase
A group of words not containing a subject and its verb (eg on the table, the girl in a red dress).

Predicate
Each sentence contains (or implies) two parts: a subject and a predicate. The predicate is what is said about the subject.

Preposition
A word like at, to, in, over etc. Prepositions usually come before a noun and give information about things like time, place and direction.

Pronoun
A word like I, me, you, he, him, it etc. A pronoun replaces a noun.

Sentence
A group of words that express a thought. A sentence conveys a statement, question, exclamation or command. A sentence contains or implies a subject and a predicate. In simple terms, a sentence must contain a verb and (usually) a subject. A sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop (.), question mark (?) or exclamation mark (!).

Subject
Every sentence contains (or implies) two parts: a subject and a predicate. The subject is the main noun (or equivalent) in a sentence about which something is said.

Tense
The form of a verb that shows us when the action or state happens (past, present or future). Note that the name of a tense is not always a guide to when the action happens. The "present continuous tense", for example, can be used to talk about the present or the future.

Verb
A word like (to) work, (to) love, (to) begin. A verb describes an action or state.

General Grammar Exam

1. In the sentence "The dog bit her finger," the underlined pronoun has which of the following combinations of person, number, and case:

A. third person, plural, possessive
B. third person, plural, accusative
C. third person, singular, possessive
D. third person, plural, subjective
E. none of the above

2. The sentence "No one was happy with the results of the test; thus, we rechecked the data" contains which of the following parts of speech:

A. coordinating conjunction
B. subordinating conjunction
C. conjunctive adverb
D. modal verb
E. indefinite article

3. In the sentence "John was happy with the results, yet he, too, wanted to recheck the data" the underlined word is an example of which of the following parts of speech:

A. coordinating conjunction
B. subordinating conjunction
C. conjunctive adverb
D. adjective
E. preposition

4. In the sentence "Bill is drinking far too much for a person of his size," the word is is an example of which of the following parts of speech:

A. main verb
B. modal verb
C. auxiliary verb
D. linking verb
E. none of the above

5. The verb tense of the sentence "They will have already taken the test" is which of the following:

A. future past
B. present perfect
C. future perfect
D. past perfect progressive
E. present progressive