In the article we will analyze the time featuresEnglish and Russian languages, namely, we compare the formation of past tense in these two languages. We will analyze in detail what is Past Simple (pastes simpl) in English. Be sure to understand how sentences are built, what rules and exceptions exist. The topic is quite logical and simple, if not distracted by the explanation.
Past time in languages
To begin with, the elapsed time inRussian and English have a fundamental semantic difference. There is one past tense in our language. For us, this is absolutely natural and goes without saying: "he read a book yesterday","we phoned two days ago","by three o'clock i was ready to go","they walked from four to eight in the evening”, Etc. All these actions were performed in the past and were carried out up to the present moment.
For us, it is enough to understand that wedealing with the past tense. In English, there are four varieties of the past tense. The given example sentences are used in different types of temporary past tense forms.
Note: past varieties
So, in order to make the picture clearer, let us list the types of the past tense - Past Tenses (in the past translation - “past, past”, tenses - “times”):
- Past Simple - past simple.
- Past Continuous - past continuous.
- Past Perfect - the past perfect.
- Past Perfect Continuous - past perfect in the process.
All these times are past. For clarity, consider the difference on additional specific proposals:
- Past Simple: "He read the book yesterday". For us it is important that the action happened sometime in the past - “yesterday”. It does not matter here: whether it was in the morning or in the evening. Most importantly, the action happened.
- Past Continuous: "Yesterday at two o'clock in the afternoon he was reading a book". This time informs us about a specific action at a particular point in the past, not just “yesterday”, but “yesterday at two o'clock in the afternoon.” The action took place at a particular moment.
- Past Perfect: "By two o'clock he had finished reading the novel". Here the action took place in the past and was completed before two o'clock. In other words, the action happened before some other action (or time) in the past.
- Finally, Past Perfect Continuous: "He read the novel yesterday from three to six in the evening.". At this time, the emphasis is on doing an action in the past, lasting for a long period and ending up to the time defined in the past.
At first glance, somewhat confused and difficult. But when studying a specific time and with the necessary training, everything becomes clear.
We are interested now specifically Past Simple (pastel simpl) in English. We will consider it.
Past Simple: use cases
Past Simple Time (pastes simpl) in Englishcharacterizes the actions that took place sometime in the past. Typically, such sentences contain certain words (perhaps they are simply implied): yesterday or two hours ago, last week or last Friday, last year or month, a couple of years or five years ago, and so on.
Actions that took place in the past and follow each other also characterize this time. For example: "She woke up, took a shower, got ready, had breakfast and went to work.".
This time is also used when the usual actions in the past are meant, but now irrelevant: “In my distant childhood I often loved to run to visit my grandmother".
We now turn to the construction of proposals and touch on those defined in Past Simple (pasta simpl) rules.
Affirmative (narrative) sentences in Past Simple
So, to build an affirmative sentence in Past Simple, you need to know the following: in English there are regular and irregular verbs. We will understand:
- Regular verbs are those that obey.certain laws of the language, for example, the rule of education of the past tense. For all correct, one might say, “obedient” verbs, it is one and obligatory: to the initial form of the verb (without particle then) for the formation of the form in the past tense is added the ending “-ed" or "–E".
- Irregular verbs are simplelanguage, "naughty" verbs that do not obey the general principle outlined above for the formation of the form of the verb in Past Simple (pastes simpl). The rules do not work here - there are exceptions that need to be memorized! The difficulty is that there are a lot of irregular verbs. They are all reflected in special grammatical tables in textbooks or in ordinary English-Russian dictionaries. Next to the irregular verb are two more forms. We will be interested in the second form (or the second column in the tables of textbooks).
When building proposals remember orderof words. At the initial stage, try to start with the subject, followed by the predicate, and only then all the other members of the sentence. This is not necessary, but desirable, since the observance of this moment will help develop the habit of not losing significant parts of the utterance and knowing exactly where to start building the phrase.
Negative and interrogative sentences in Past Simple
To build negative and interrogative sentences in Past Simple (pasta simpl) in English, you need to know that there is an auxiliary verb did. This is the helper verb. It helps to build negative and interrogative statements.
In the negative sentence, first (in the first place) is the subject, then - the verb “did” with a negative not (in abbreviated form - didn’t), then - predicate in the initial form without then and the rest of the sentence.
When constructing a question, the word order is the following: first, if there is one, the interrogative word is put, then the helper verb did, then - subject, predicate, in the initial form without thenand the rest of the sentence. The example in the table proposed in the article shows this more clearly.
For a complete understanding and consolidation of the receivedKnowledge must be performed in Past Simple (pasta simpl) exercises. It can be a variety of tasks: put the verb in the desired form, translate the sentence from Russian into English, insert a suitable verb from the proposed, etc. The main thing is to perform them with awareness, in this case it will be very easy to build your speech in the past tense.
The article reflects the complete Past Simple (pastes simpl) table. Disassemble it again in detail and carefully. The two accents are regular / irregular verbs and the auxiliary verb did.
Note: the types of simple Simple (simpl) time
It is necessary to repeat that if you catch the principle of the use of tenses in the English language, which is peculiar and simple, then the whole temporary table in the English language will become clear and transparent.
For example, simple in translation - "plain".There are three Simple times in English: Present Simple, Past Simple, Future Simple (a present and pastes simpl, and also a futish simpl), that is, a present simple, past simple and future simple time. Each of these types of time is characterized by its own construction of sentences and its own characteristics, which is presented in the table.
It will also be extremely useful to carry out exercises for comparing and constructing sentences in this line of the Simple direction (for example,, present simpl and pastel simpl, pastes simpl and fyuche simpl, present simpl and fyuche simpl). And the more practice the better!
We hope that this article was useful and informative for you.
