Simple past without verb To BeSIMPLE PAST WITH AUXILIARY DID

Main differences

Simple past with verb To Be We use it to express conditions

or characteristics about someone.

To form a sentence, we must use verb To Be in its past tense, which complicates the format of its three moods: affirmative, negative and interrogative forms.

Simple past with auxiliary DID We use it to describe a wide

gamut of actions that took place in the past.

To form any sentence, we just need the main verb in simple past for affirmative form and auxiliary DID plus main verb in simple present (for negative we need the negative particle).

What is it?

Simple past without verb To Be (with auxiliary DID) carries out with the same purpose than simple past with verb to be. In this mood, we don’t need verb To Be to express past actions. We use any verb in simple past, to describe actions or facts that took place in the past instead.

What is it?

It’s one of two ways to talk in simple past. In this way, we use DID to simplify the form of the sentence, since we just need (in affirmative form) the main verb in simple past and for other forms we only need DID plus the main verb in Simple Present.

What is the use?

In contrast of the Simple Past with Verb To Be, we use Simple Past with auxiliary DID to talk about the past with any verb, and being unnecessarily of place in front the conjunction of the verb To Be.

Simple past with Verb To Be

Whitney Houston was an important singer for the world.

Simple past without Verb To Be

Elizabeth Cattermole didn’t travel to Toronto onto a horse.

What is the use?

To express a completed action in the past:

To express a series of completed actions:

To talk about a duration in past:

Last summer, Tom built his house.

I finished work, walked to the beach, and found a nice place to swim.

Laura studied Japanese for five years.

What is the use?

To express an habitual action in the past:

It also can be used to express past facts or generalizations:

It can also refer to a past state:

John did not study French when he was a child. He studied German.

People paid much more to make cell phone calls in the past.

I knew how to fight even as a child.

What is the use?

Simple past also can be used with conditionals, for example “Wish”:

We can use it to express an indirect speech:

I wish I knew how to dance Tango.

He said he wanted to go to England.

Some important data

Simple past could usually be accompanied with a time adverb, or with an adverbial phrase:

When any adverb appears at the front of a sentence, it is usual to use a comma afterwards. A comma is not usually used when the adverbial phrase appears at the back of a sentence. But this is not a strict rule. A comma helps to read.

Yesterday Two days ago

Last night The day before yesterday 

A while ago Last year

Three days ago Last month

Last week, and so on…

How can we make it up?

We make the simple past just like the simple present except we use 'did' instead of 'do / does'. It's really easy because 'did' doesn't change, even with 'he / she / it'.

Auxiliary DID can be used for all the subject pronouns. When we use it (auxiliary DID) the main verb must be in SIMPLE PRESENT because DID turns it into SIMPLE PAST.

DID only can be used in interrogative and negative structures, but DID can be used in affirmative form in expanded (emphatic) simple past.

Affirmative Form

To make it up, we use a verb in simple past.

There is no addition of “-s” for the third person singular as in the simple present. So, there is no need to change the way of write the verb in simple past.

Affirmative Form

Subject

Verb in simple past

Complement

Affirmative

Sentence

“DID” plus verb in simple present

Negative FormSubject

I, you, he, she, we, you, they

Auxiliary DID

DID plus negative particle NOT

Main verb

In SIMPLE PRESENT

Complement

The rest of the sentence

Interrogative form

DID Subject

Verb in simple present

Comlement

Question mark

Negative question

Did I/you/he/she/it/we/they not help?

Didn't I/you/he/she/it/we/they help?

Simple past with WH questions

Also, we often use simple past with WH questions (or WH words) to talk or ask the mood (or time) when something happened, started and/or ended. Those sentences only can be in affirmative or interrogative form

When you called me, my mom arrived to home.

How did you do so much noise last night?

Why didn’t you tell me anything?

Simple past with adverbs

The examples below show the placement for grammar adverbs such as: always, only, never, ever, still, just, etc.

The adverb must be placed BEFORE of the verb.

1. You just called Debbie.

2. Did you just call Debbie?

Graphic examples

Graphic examples

Bibliography

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=564075052

https://sites.google.com/site/bluebloc/grammar/past-tenses/past-simple

http://www.mansioningles.com/gram40.htm

http://www.learnenglish.de/grammar/tensesimpast.html

http://www.englishpage.com/verbpage/simplepast.html

http://www.edufind.com/english/grammar/simple_past.php