Saturday, September 8, 2007

"Was" and "Did"

A. (False) :I was not go yesterday.
B. (True)I did not go yesterday.

The learner whose native language are not english, often gets difficulty in using "was" and "did" in negative past tense sentence. Indonesian learners, for example, often make the utterance "I was not go yesterday" in stead of "I did not go yesterday". This happens because They don't find auxiliary in Indonesian language. In this case the Indonesian learners seem to understand the use of past tens, but the choice of "was" in the sentence "I was not go yesterday" is not correct. The past form "Was" is used in the negative sentence which does not have a verb. When the sentence has a verb, "did" is used in the neagative sentence. look at the examples below.

1.(True) She was not at home last night.
2.(False) She was not go last night.

3. (True) She was not at home last night.
4. (False) She did not at home last night.

5. (True) She did not go last night.
6. (False) She was not go last night.

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