Forming Simple Past Tense Verbs

Forming Simple Past tense verbs is actually quite easy for regular English verbs. However, as with teaching all verb tenses, conjugation is only the beginning of the lesson.There is essentially only one rule to follow to conjugate a regular past tense verb. Irregular Simple Past tense verbs are a bit trickier. There is no one general rule for irregulars and the student learning English as a second language or a foreign language must simply memorize irregular verbs.
As with all verb tenses, three things are essential to teach students learning English:
(1) Verb conjugation,
(2) Verb form, and
(3) Verb function.

Simple Past Verb Conjugation (using miscellaneous common verbs, for example)
Forming Simple Past tense verbs in the affirmative is pretty easy. There is only one form of the verb no matter what the subject is. Regular Simple Past tense verbs are formed by adding "-ed" to the end of the base form of the verb (e.g., walked, dressed, called, enjoyed, etc.). For verbs that already end with an "e," just add a "d" (e.g., cared, raced, decided, invited, etc.).
Here are some examples of conjugated Past Tense verbs:
1. I talked. I walked. I danced. I cared.
2. You talked. You walked. You danced. You cared.
3. She/He/It talked. She/He/It walked. She/He/It danced. She/He/It cared.
4. They talked. They walked. They danced. They cared.
5. We talked. We walked. We danced. We cared.

Simple Past Verb Forms (five ways of forming Simple Past tense verbs the ESL student must learn)
1. Affirmative Usage (e.g., She talked.)
2. Negative Usage (e.g., She didn’t talk.)
3. Yes/No Questions (e.g., Did she talk?)
4. Short Answers (e.g., Yes, she did. No, she didn’t.)
5. WH- Questions (e.g., When did she talk?)
The tricky thing for ESL students conjugating the Simple Past is remembering to use the correct "helping" or "auxiliary" verb "to do" when conjugating Simple Past tense verbs in the negative and when forming questions (yes/no questions and wh- questions).

Simple Past Function (when to use this tense)
The Simple Past verb tense has one primary function: to express an activity or situation that started in the past and ended in the past at a particular time. Here are some examples:
I finished my homework last night.
I traveled to Spain in 1985.
I got up at seven this morning.

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Source:
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