Section 10.7 Past Tense
The past tense is more complex than it first appears, for two reasons. First, the formation itself is irregular in a large number of common verbs—the verbs you use most often in English tend to be the ones that do not follow the predictable -ed pattern. Second, and more surprisingly, the past tense is not always about past time. As you will see below, the same past tense form that describes yesterday’s events can also signal hypothetical or counterfactual meaning (If I were you...) and can even soften a request to make it more polite (I wondered if you could help). Tense, in other words, encodes more than just time.
Formation.
Regular verbs: Add -ed
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walk → walked
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play → played
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study → studied
Spelling rules for -ed:
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Most verbs: add -ed (walked, played)
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Ending in -e: add -d (hoped, loved)
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Consonant + y: change y to -ied (studied, carried)
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CVC ending (stressed): double final consonant (stopped, planned)
Irregular verbs: Various patterns
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Vowel change: sing → sang, run → ran
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Vowel change + consonant: think → thought, bring → brought
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No change: cut → cut, put → put
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Suppletive: go → went, be → was/were
Uses of Past Tense.
Completed past events:
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She walked to school yesterday.
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The meeting ended at noon.
Past states:
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I knew the answer then.
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She was happy.
Hypotheticals/Counterfactuals (not about past time):
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If I were you, I would leave. (but I’m not you)
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I wish I knew the answer. (but I don’t)
Polite requests (not about past time):
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I wondered if you could help.
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Did you want to order?
