Past Indefinite in English: The Rule of Writing and Use

Past Indefinite is a past indefinite time, also called Past Simple (past simple). It is used to express committed or already committed acts in the past. Time is used in narrative sentences, describing past events and states.

Formation of past simple time Requires students to know about the three basic forms of the verb: the Infinitive (the infinitive form of the verb that is easily recognized by the particle to), Past Indefinite (the form of the past indefinite time), and Past Participle (past participle).

Correct and irregular verbs (regular and irregular verbs)

Depending on how the verbs form Past Indefinite and Past Participle, they are divided into two groups: right and wrong. Since English tends to be simplistic, most verbs belong to the right group. There are also verbs that simultaneously have the correct and irregular forms of Past Simple and Past Participle:

To spell-spelled-spelled (correct) or to spell-spelt-spelt (incorrect)

To wake - waked - waked (correct) or to wake - woke - woken (wrong)

Frequently used irregular verbs are found in special tables, they must be learned by heart. And when meeting a new verb, you should check the dictionary translation, transcription and then to which group of verbs it refers: it is correct or wrong.

Past Indefinite Tense. Rules for the formation of an affirmative form for regular verbs

Most verbs in the English language belong to the correct group and form the past tense according to general principles. To form the affirmative form of Past Indefinite Tense, the correct verbs to the infinitive form without the particle are added -ed.

• To smoke. He smoked last year.
• She kissed the doll and closed the small door of the dollhouse.
• We opened the window yesterday.
• The students cleaned the rooms last week.

Pronunciation - ed

• After deaf sounds -ed is pronounced as [t] - worked, cooked, finished;
• After sounds t, d - as [id] - ended, started;
• After other sounds (voiced and vowels), as [d] - changed, cleaned, arrived.

When -ed is added to the infinitive form of the verb, the following rules apply:

• If the verb ends with a mute -e, only -d is added.

To close - close

To love - love

• The ending -y changes to -i if the -y is preceded by a consonant.

To try - tried

To cry - cried

• If there is a vowel in front of -y, -ed is added without changes.

To play - played

To obey - obeyed

• In monosyllabic verbs with a short vowel, a consonant is doubled.

To stop - stopped

To rob - robbed

• If in a two-syllable verb the stress falls on the second syllable with a short vowel sound, the consonant also doubles.

To permit - allow

To prefer -

• The ending -l doubles in the British spelling rules, and in this case the stress does not matter.

To travel - traveled

To cancel - cancelled

Rules of education for the affirmative form of irregular verbs

There are no definite rules for the formation of Past Indefinite of irregular verbs, since they preserved the historical features of the formation. To make it easier to remember irregular verbs, they are divided into several groups, depending on how they form these two forms.

• Changes to the root vowels (to dig-dug-dug, to meet-met-met, to drink-drank-drunk).

Children met their friend yesterday. The children met their friend yesterday.

• The endings of infinitives (to bend - bent - bent, build - built - built).

My father built that house in 1980. My father built this house in 1980.

• Adding other endings (not -ed) and changing the root vowels (to fall-fell-fallen).

Massive meteorite fell last night. A huge meteorite fell last week.

• Some verbs do not change, they remain the same in all three forms (to put - put - put).

I put the book on the shelf yesterday. I put the book on the shelf yesterday.

Formation of interrogative form

The interrogative form is formed with the help of the verb to do (in Past Indefinite-did), which is placed before the subject.

• Did you play tennis last summer? Did you play tennis last summer?
• Did she graduate from the University in 2000? She graduated from university in 2000?
• Did we meet two years ago? We met two years ago?

The use of the auxiliary verb did not require any action with the semantic verb. We do not add - ed to the correct verbs and do not refer to the table of irregular verbs. The form did was used in the singular and plural for all persons.

Formation of negative form

The auxiliary verb did with the particle not used to form the negative form of Past Indefinite tense.

• Our teacher did not explain the spelling of adjectives. Our teacher did not explain the spelling rules of adjectives.
• She did not drink coffee yesterday. She did not drink coffee yesterday.
• They did not study last winter. They did not study last winter.

In colloquial speech a short negative form was used.

I did not watch TV yesterday. Yesterday I did not watch TV.

In short answers to questions for all individuals of the singular and plural, the affirmative form is used - Yes, I did and negative - No, I did not.

Did you go to school yesterday? Yes, I did./No, I did not. Did you go to school yesterday? Well no.

The verb to be in the past tense

The verb to be is an auxiliary verb and a verb-bundle for its role in the sentence and in meaning. It serves for the formation of temporal forms of semantic verbs and for the formation of a compound nominal predicate.

To form the question and negative forms of the verb to be, the auxiliary verb to do is not used.

• Was she in in office yesterday? Was she at the office yesterday?
• Was your mother in bank two days ago? Was your mom at the bank two days ago?
• She was not at the party last week. She was not at a party last week.

The verb to be has also a plural in Past Indefinite. The rules for using it are as follows: were used with the first, second and third plural (we - we, you - you, they - they).

• Were they at work last Sunday? Were they at work last Sunday?
• We were not in an office last week. We were not at the office last week.

In colloquial speech, short forms of the verb in the past tense are used: was not and were not.

When is Past Indefinite used? Rules and examples

• Past Simple is used to express past actions with time pointers: yesterday, last Monday, three weeks ago, a year ago, in 2001.

We are visited by grandmother yesterday. We went to see his grandmother yesterday.

• We also use Past Simple when we ask the question of time with the question word "when".

When did you visit his grandmother? When were you at his grandmother's?

• Past Indefinite is used when no time is specified, but it is assumed that it has already expired.

My husband once saw Amy Winehouse. My husband once saw Amy Winehouse (As the singer has died and her husband can not see her anymore, we use Past Indefinite Active).

• In addition, the past simple time is used in the main sentences with direct speech. And with the formation of indirect speech in the subordinate clause, the future time can not be used, respectively, it passes to Future Indefinite in the Past or other times of the Future-in-the-Past group, depending on what future time was used in the original proposal.

She told: "Mr Smith will send a letter."

She told Mr Smith would send a letter. She said that Mr. Brown will send a letter.

• When we talk about past habitual or regularly recurring actions, we use Past Indefinite. The rules for using the equivalents used to and would are described below.

Her sister always carries a little umbrella. Her sister always carried a small umbrella with her.

But more often in these cases used used to.

Her sister used to carry a little umbrella. Her sister wore a small umbrella with her.

When is used the turnover used to in English?

To express the usual and repetitive actions or events in the past, along with the past time, the used used to. This design is used in spoken and literary language. Turnover used to express both states and repetitive actions in the past, unlike another equivalent of the past tense, the verb would, which can only be used to express actions in the past and is never used to express states.

My friend used to drink 3 cups of coffee and smoke 20 cigarettes a day. My friend once drank three cups of coffee and smoked twenty cigarettes a day.

My grandmother used to walk. My grandmother made walks for ten kilometers when she was younger.

My grandmother would walk ten kilimeters when she was younger. My grandmother walked ten kilometers when she was younger.

My teacher used to live in London. My teacher lived in London.

It should be noted that would + Infinitive without particle to is often used with phrases indicating the time of the action.

Affirmative, negative and interrogative forms of turnover used to

For the formation of an affirmative form of turnover, use is used in the past tense with the particle to and the infinitive form of the semantic verb.

My son used to play chess on Sundays. My son played chess on Sundays (Now he does not play chess on Sundays, but walks on football or arranges a barbecue).

A negative form is formed with the help of the verb do in past tense and not. The verb use is in the present tense, because the form did already signal the past. In colloquial speech, a short form of negation is more often used.

Our teacher did not use to give us a lot of homework. Our teacher did not ask us much homework.

To form the question form, the verb to do in the past tense is also used.

Did she use to embroider in the evening? Did she embroider in the evenings?

The study of the temporary form of Past Indefinite and its equivalents needs to be given due attention, as they are widely used in colloquial and written speech of general and business English.