Past indefinite tense how use

THE USE OF THE PAST INDEFINITE TENSE

The Past Indefinite refers actions to the past cut off from the present. It is the tense of narration. The reference of the context to the past is indicated by adverbials of time: yesterday, the day before yesterday, last year, last week, a month ago, in 1999, on the 1st of September, etc.

He left last Monday. Pushkin was born in 1799. She came back an hour ago.

The Past Indefinite Tense is used to denote:

1. Habitual (customary) actions in the past.

Mr. Sanford usually took an early train to town.

Note: Repeated, habitual actions are also expressed by ‘used to + Infinitive’and‘would + Infinitive’. They form a compound verbal aspect predicate:

He used to sit up late reading when he studied at college.

He would come every Sunday with toys and sweets for us.

Sometimes ‘used to’ denotes actions or states that lasted some time in the past:

They used to be friends.

There used to be a telephone-booth round the corner.

2. Simple facts in the past:

– When did you buy this dictionary? — I bought it a month ago.

They translatedthis novel ten years ago.

3. A succession of past actions.

She put aside the book and wentout into the garden.

He locked the door and ran downstairs.

4. Actions future from the point of view of the past in adverbial clauses of time and condition in the indirect speech, if the predicate of the principal clause is in the past:

She said she would leave when she finished the work.

She said they usually went to the park in the afternoon, if it did not rain.

5. Actions in progress at a certain moment in the past, with the verbs that are not usually used in Continuous forms:

He was not listening but still heard what they were speaking about.

She did not understand what they were speaking about.

THE PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE

(THE PAST PROGRESSIVE)

FORMATION

The forms of the Past Continuous are analytical. They are built by means of the past forms of the auxiliary verb be (was, were)and participle Iof the notional verb.

THE USE OF THE PAST CONTINUOUS TENSE

The Past Continuous is used to denote:

1. Actions in progress at a certain moment in the past:

At nine he was still having breakfast.

It was raining heavily when he left.

The moment of time may be indicated by means of adverbials, adverbial clauses or understood from the situation:

It was late but he was still working.

2. Actions and states characteristic of certain persons in the past:

She was leaving her things everywhere.

3. Actions thought of as continual processes:

He was writing a book that summer.

With the phrases the whole day, all day longboth the Past Indefinite and the Past Continuous may be used:

We were watching TV the whole day yesterday.

We watched TV the whole day yesterday.

The Past Indefinite emphasizes the fact while the Past Continuous emphasizes the process.

4. Future actions viewed from the past with the verbs of motion if the action is planned or expected:

She was leaving next morning and there wasn’t much time left.

5. A period of time in the middle of which something happens:

Simple Past Tense Rules and Examples (Past Indefinite Tense)

Simple Past Tense Rules, Examples (Past Indefinite Tense) with Exercises are given here in detail. Let’s learn how to make and use Past Indefinite Tense in English Grammar. To describe a past event, we use Past Indefinite Tense. Let’s review the rules and examples.

Note: You can see that the above sentences contain the verb II with subjects. These verbs tell us that something happened in the past.

Simple Past Tense (Past Indefinite Tense)

The simple past tense is used to denote an action in the past. This tense is sometimes called the preterit tense. This tense is used mostly to express the past. It is also called the present indefinite tense.

Structure – Subject + Verb II + Object + Other

Helping verb – Did

Main Verb –

How to make sentences Simple Past Tense – Rules and Examples

Affirmative Sentences

Structure – Subject + verb II + object + other words.

Examples:

Affirmative Sentences of Past Form of ‘To Be’

Examples:

Negative Sentences

Structure – Subject + did not + verb I + object + other words

Examples:

Negative Sentences of Past Form of ‘ To Be ‘

Examples:

Interrogative Sentences (Yes-No Type)

Examples:

Yes-No Type Sentences with ‘To be’

Examples:

Wh-word Type Interrogative Sentences

Examples –

Interrogative Sentences with Verb – To Be

Interrogative Negative Sentences

In the Interrogative Negative Sentences, we put not after the subject.

Examples –

Use of Simple Past Tense (Past Indefinite Tense)

Simple Past Tense (Past Indefinite Tense) is used to express the following;

To describe a past action

Examples:

To describe the past habits

Note –

The Past Indefinite Tense (Прошедшее неопределенное время)

Продолжение серии статей о временах в английском языке.

Past Indefinite — временная форма глагола, которая выражает действие, прошедшее или происходившее в прошлом. Past Indefinite правильных глаголов образовывается добавлением к инфинитиву без частицу to окончания -ed:

Глаголы в Past Indefinite имеют одну форму во всех лицах единственного и множественного числа:

• если инфинитив заканчивается на букву -e, то в Past Indefnite она не пишется:

• если инфинитив заканчивается на букву -y, которой предшествует согласная, то перед окончанием -ed она изменяется на -i:

to study — studied

• если инфинитив заканчивается на одну согласную букву, которой предшествует краткий ударный гласный звук, то конечный перед -ed удваивается:

to stop — stopped

• конечная буква -r удваивается, если последний слог ударный:

• конечная буква -l удваивается, если её предшествует краткий гласный звук (ударный или безударный):

to travel — travelled

Past Indefinite неправильных глаголов.

В Past Indefinite неправильные глаголы употребляются во второй форме.

to speak — spoke

to write — wrote

Вопросительная форма Past Indefinite правильных и неправильных глаголов образуется при помощи вспомогательного глагола to do и инфинитива основного глагола без частицы to:

Did you study at this university? (Ты учился в этом университете?)

Did she go to a park? (Она ходила в парк?)

Отрицательная форма Past Indefinite образуется с помощью отрицательной частицы not после вспомогательного глагола:

I did not like that party. (Мне не понравилась та вечеринка)

В устной речи обычно сокращают: I didn’t like that party.

В вопросительно-отрицательной форме Past Indefinite вспомогательный глагол did ставится перед подлежащим, а частица not после него:

Why did you not say me it? (Почему же ты мне этого не сказал?)

но если используется сокращение, то didn’t ставится перед подлежащим:

Why didn’t you go there? (Почему ты не ходил туда?)

Глагол to do в Past Indefinite также может употребляться для усиления высказываемой мысли:

I did love you! (Я действительно любил тебя!)

Past Indefinite глаголов to do и to be

Глагол to be в Past Indefinite имеет две формы: was для первого и третьего лица единственного числа и were для всех других.

В вопросительной форме глагол to be ставится перед подлежащим:

Were you at home? (Вы были дома?)

В отрицательной форме после was/were употребляется частица not:

I was not in Great Britain. (Я не был в Великобритании)

They were not there. (Они там не были)

Обычно используют сокращение: I wasn’t…You weren’t…

Глагол to have в Past Indefinite имеет форму — had.

I had a friend. (У меня был друг)

She had a good car. (У нее была хорошая машина)

He had a house. (У него был дом)

Вопросительная форма глагола to have в Past Indefifnite имеет вид: did+have. Для образования вопроса did употребляется перед подлежащим, have после него.

Did you have books? (У тебя были книги?)

Отрицательная форма, как правило, образуется без вспомогательного глагола to do, и употребляется как и в Present Indefinite с отрицательными частицами not или no.

I hadn’t problems. (У меня не было проблем)

I had no chose. (У меня не было выбора)

Употребление Past Indefinite

Past Indefinite выражает единичное или постоянно действие в прошлом. Время прошлого действия часто уточняется словами: yesterday (вчера), last week (на прошлой неделе), last year (в прошлом году) и т.д. :

I was there yesterday. (Я был там вчера)

He were at the hospital last week. (Он был в больнице на прошлой неделе)

She was here this morning. (Она была здесь утром)

Past Indefinite употребляется для выражения ряда последовательных действий в прошлом:

I woke up, washed myself and went out of home. (Я проснулся, умылся и вышел из дома)

Past Indefinite употребляется для выражения повторяющегося действия в прошлом:

I saw him every day. (Я видел его каждый день)

She came many times to our house. (Она много раз к нам приходила)

Past Indefinite Tense: A Guide to Better Grammar

Having a strong grasp of English grammar can help you in a variety of ways. It can make your written and verbal communication stronger and can ensure that you get your point across more clearly. It can improve and heighten the quality of essays you are writing for academic purposes, and in the business world having a strong sense of English grammar can help guarantee that you are able to communicate clearly and to avoid problematic ambiguities. With English as the go-to language of business around the world it can also help to enable better communication with overseas clients and partners.

If you are new to the English language, you might consider staring your grammatical education with Udemy’s Intro to English Grammar course. There you will learn all about the rules, requirements, and uses of English grammar, including one particularly useful tense: the past indefinite.

The Tenses

To understand and better use the past indefinite tense you have to first understand what a tense is. Tenses are modifications to a verb (active words, such as to throw, to jump, to believe, etc.) that dictate when the action took place. There are three tenses in English: past, present, and future. Each tense when applied to the verb indicates the time when the action happened (past), happens (present), or will happen (future). Each tense has its own rules and many different categories within it.

The Past Indefinite

The indefinite tense is also called a simple tense. This particular tense has a variety of grammatical uses. Most often, it is used to communicate an action that has happened or been completed in the past. Generally, time of action is not stated directly (though it can be) but it makes sense that the action happened not too long ago. For example, they approached him indicates that they came up to him, that the particular act is completed, and that it has happened relatively recently.

When using the past indefinite, it is important to remember that it is only used to change verbs. These are the action words. The subject, object, articles, and more are not directly changed by the past indefinite tense. The examples below detail some uses of the past indefinite tense. Take not how the underlined verb has been altered to suit the past indefinite tense.

It is used to state an action that has been completed in the past with specific reference to when the statement was being made, such as:

It can also be used to communicate an action that is habitual or happened regularly in the past, such as:

The indefinite past tense can be used to communicate an event that happened at a particular time in the past, such as:

And it can also be used to express two actions that take place at the same time or when one action leads immediately to another, such as:

Basic Conjugations For Past Indefinite

It is important that you know the basic changes that verbs undergo when they are put into the past indefinite tense. A few of them are as follows:

These are the three most basic second form verb conjugations that make up part of the elements of English grammar. However, there are many more conjugations that need to be learned if you plan on using the past indefinite tense.

For Interrogative and Negative Sentences

When the past indefinite tense is used for interrogative sentences (questions) or for negative sentences, most often the word ‘did’ is used. Did is the second form of the verb to do. There is no other conjugation used for to do in this situation, only did is used. In questions when the word did is used, and conjugated, it means that the main verb is not. In this particular use of the past indefinite tense the main verb remains in the present tense. Look at these examples below. To help, take notice that the word did is italicized and the main verb (in present tense) is underlined.

For negative sentences in the past indefinite tense the rule is similar to that of interrogative sentences. However did not is used instead. Here the conjugation of the verb to do as did indicates the past, the addition of the word not indicates the negative, and the main verb is kept in the present to represent the indefinite. Here are some examples:

As the usage of the past indefinite tense becomes more complex so do the rules for it. In order to help you remember all of this consider taking Udemy’s course on grammar rules, support, and tricks. It can help you get a stronger handle on the many things you’ll need to remember to use English grammar correctly.

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Past Indefinite Tense, English Past Indefinite Tense Examples

Past Indefinite Tense, English Past Indefinite Tense Examples

Past Indefinite Tense

In order to use the English language comfortably in every situation and to express yourself with rich sentences, you must first have detailed information about the tenses. The use of certain auxiliary verbs in the English language and some suffix options that change the meaning of the verbs can completely change the meaning of the sentence. Therefore, having knowledge about technical grammar rules means using the language correctly and understanding sentences correctly. Today we will examine the Past Indefinite Tense with you and learn the general sentence rules of this tense. We will also take a look at sample sentences created using the Past Indefinite Tense.

In this way, we aim to ensure that you achieve maximum success both in writing, in essay exams, and speaking activities.

What is Past Indefinite Tense?

The Past Indefinite Tense is a tense used to express a state or action that occurred in the past. Usually, the exact time of this action or state is not specified in these sentences. Therefore, sentences have an indefinite meaning. In short, in such sentences, there is no time frame to give information about the exact time period of the action that took place in the past or the situation seen in the past.

Affirmative – Positive Sentences in Past Indefinite Tense

The structure of positive sentences in Past Infinite Tense is briefly as follows:

Affirmative sentences can be established by following the basic formula above.

Examples

Negative Sentences in Past Indefinite Tense

It is also possible to organize sentences with negative meanings using the Past Infinitive Tense. While doing this, you should also be considering the state and actions that took place in the past. In addition, just like the other tenses, the word to be used to give the negative meaning in this tense is obvious: not! Now let’s take a look at the general structure of the negative sentences in the past indefinite tense. Later, let’s examine the sample sentences.

Negative sentences can be established by following the basic formula above.

Examples

Interrogative Sentence in Past Indefinite Tense

Sometimes we want to ask a question about a situation or action that happened in the past. In such a case, the tense we should use is Past Indefinite Tense. When we use this tense, we need to put the auxiliary verb at the beginning of the question sentence. In a moment, we’ll give you the formula you need to follow to create a question sentence. Also, don’t forget to add a question mark at the end of sentences.

Interrogative sentences can be established by following the basic formula above.

Examples

You can get more detailed information about tenses by reading our other articles.