Past Tense

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Using Past Tense Verbs

Some helping verbs combine with main verbs to show time and voice. Helping verbs such as can, could, may, might, must, ought, shall, should, will , and would are used to add extra meaning to main verbs.

These helping verbs are called modals. They show a necessity, possibility, ability, permission, prediction or responsibility:. The helping verb do does or its past tense did is used together with the infinitive of a verb to ask questions, make the negative form, or to show added importance:. A verbal nonfinite verb is no longer a verb. It is a verb form used as a noun, an adjective, or an adverb. A verbal can never be a main verb.

Tense shows the time of a verbs action or being. There are three verb tenses: Each tense has past, present and future forms.

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Because tense shows time, a time word in a sentence helps to decide what tense is being used. Most time words can only go with a certain tense. These are some examples:. The simple tenses show that an action or state of being is past, present, or future. The present tense shows action that is happening now as a person speaks or writes. The present tense is also used to describe actions that are factual or habitual commonly repeated over a period of time. The present tense uses the verbs infinitive or the -s form for third person singular subject.

The past tense shows action that has finished as a person speaks or writes.

Past tense

The past tense uses the verbs past tense form. The future tense shows action that has not happened yet as a person speaks or writes. The future tense uses the helping verb will or shall plus the verbs infinitive. All subjects use had for the past perfect tense. All subjects use will have or shall have for the future perfect tense. You didn't walk to work. He doesn't speak Japanese. He didn't speak Japanese.

Introduction

We use did to make a question in the past tense. Do they live in France? Did they live in France? The auxiliary DID shows that the question is in the past tense. The only difference between a question in the present tense and a question in the past tense is the change in the auxiliary verb. Both Do and Does in present tense questions become Didn't in past tense questions.

Do you need a doctor? Did you need a doctor? Do you ride your bike to work? Did you ride your bike to work? Does he live in Italy? Did he live in Italy?

We can also use a question word Who, What, Why etc. Past events are often referred to using the present perfect construction, as in I have finished also known as present in past. However this is not regarded as an instance of the past tense; instead it is viewed as a combination of present tense with perfect aspect , specifying a present state that results from past action. Various multi-word constructions exist for combining past tense with progressive continuous aspect, which denotes ongoing action; with perfect aspect; and with progressive and perfect aspects together.

These and other common past tense constructions are listed below. For details of the usage of the various constructions used to refer to the past, see Uses of English verb forms. Note that the past tense is also used in referring to some hypothetical situations, not necessarily connected with past time, as in if I tried or I wish I knew.

For the possible use of were in place of was in such instances, see English subjunctive. German uses three forms for the past tense. In southern Germany , Austria and Switzerland , the preterite is mostly used solely in writing, for example in stories.

Past tense - Wikipedia

Use in speech is regarded as snobbish and thus very uncommon. South German dialects, such as the Bavarian dialect, as well as Yiddish and Swiss German, have no preterite with the exception of sein and wollen , but only perfect constructs. In certain regions, a few specific verbs are used in the preterite, for instance the modal verbs and the verbs haben have and sein be. In speech and informal writing, the Perfekt is used e. I said this and that. However, in the oral mode of North Germany, there is still a very important difference between the preterite and the perfect , and both tenses are consequently very common.

The preterite is used for past actions when the focus is on the action, whilst the present perfect is used for past actions when the focus is on the present state of the subject as a result of a previous action. This is somewhat similar to the English usage of the preterite and the present perfect.

Chart: Past Tense Verbs

The past perfect is used in every German speaking country and it is used to place an action in the past before another action in the past. Dutch mainly uses these two past tenses:. Less common is the voltooid verleden tijd , which corresponds to the English past perfect. It is formed by combining an onvoltooid verleden form of zijn "to be" or hebben "to have" with the notional verb, for example: Ik was daar voor gisteren al geweest. This means "I had been there before yesterday. In non-Germanic Indo-European languages , past marking is typically combined with a distinction between perfective and imperfective aspect, with the former reserved for single completed actions in the past.

French for instance, has an imperfect tense form similar to that of German but used only for past habitual or past progressive contexts like "I used to Similar patterns extend across most languages of the Indo-European family right through to the Indic languages.

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