Past Tense

Past tense is used to express the event or situation in the past. It is usually used with the adverbs of time which show past time such as yesterday, last week, last year, last Sunday, in 1990, two days ago, two months ago, etc. These adverbs do not have to be present, the most important thing is that the event or situation occured in the past.

A. Past Tense using be (was, were)
The past form of be is was and were. was is used with the subject I, he, she, singular noun, and uncountable noun . Were is used with the subject You, they, we, and plural noun . Was and were are used for the sentences which do not have Verbs as predicates.

Examples:
1. I was sick last week.
2. She was at home last night.
3. He was a good football player in 1977.
4. My father was fat ten years ago.
5. John was here last Sunday.

6. You were in my house last night.
7. They were hungry yesterday.
8. We were in Japan last month.
9. My parents were in Jakarta two days ago.
10. Sally and Roy were sick last week.

all the sentences above do not have verbs.

B. Past Tense using Verb.

The sentences which have verbs do not need be. In Past tense, The verbs used are the past forms which are usually called Verb 2.
For regular Verbs, to make past forms is by adding the suffix -ed. The past tense of cook is cooked. For irregular verbs, there is no rule to make the past form of the verb. In this case we must memorize the irregular verbs.

Examples:

1. I went to jakarta last week. (the past tense of go)
2. My mother worked yesterday. (the past tense of work)
3. He studied English yesterday.(the past tense of study)
4. She put her book on the table last night. (the past tense of put)