The past indefinite

Past tenses

§ 29. All the past tenses (the past indefinite, the past continuous, the past perfect, the past perfect continuous) refer the actions they denote to the past. The difference between them lies in the way they represent the I categories of aspect and perfect.

Owing to their past time reference all of them are used both in the written language in narrative and description, and in conversation, especially the past indefinite.

The past indefinite

(The simple past)

§ 30. Formation.The affirmative forms of the past indefinite are synthetic, the interrogative, negative and negative-interrogative forms are analytic.

Affirmative (synthetic) forms are represented by the second of the basic verb forms.

Interrogative forms are built by means of the auxiliary to do in the past indefinite (did), which is placed before the subject, and the infinitive stem of the notional verb, which follows the subject.

Negative forms are built by means of the negative form of the auxiliary, which has two varieties: a) didn’t (used in the spoken language) and b) did not (used in the written language) and the infinitive of the notional verb that follows it.

The paradigm of the verb in the past indefinite

Negative-interrogative

The auxiliary did also occurs in affirmative forms in cases when the speaker wishes to emphasize his statement, as in:

But I assure you, he did tell me of it himself.

Actually, I did see him once last week.

There are a few verbs which form their past indefinite differently from the way described above. These are:

The verb to be, which has synthetic forms not only in the affirmative, but also in the interrogative, negative and negative-interrogative. It also distinguishes the category of number. The interrogative is formed by placing the verb before the subject.

The verb to have, which also has synthetic forms for all structures.

When having meanings other than ‘possess’ or when used as part of a phrasal verb (to have a look), to have forms its interrogative and negative in the ordinary way with the auxiliary to do.

§ 31. The past indefinite refers actions to past time quite cut off from the present, that is, these actions are in no way connected with the present).* The past indefinite can therefore be used only in contexts relating to the past. The past reference of the context can be shown:

* This is very important for distinguishing the situations in which either only the past indefinite or only the present perfect are to be used.

a) by various adverbials of time pointing to the past, for example, yesterday, the day before yesterday, last (that) Saturday (Sunday), etc., last (that) week (month, year), an hour ago (and other adverbials with ago), in 1970, on the 1st of September, and many others denoting certain moments and periods of time already past.

He left yesterday.

They married in 1975.

She returned two hours ago.

I saw them last Monday.

That night nobody slept.

b) by some other past actions (denoted by the verb in the past indefinite or past continuous).

He came when I was already at home.

They started when the sun was rising.

Thus the very fact that the past indefinite is used in a narrative or in a single sentence is generally an indication that some past time not connected with the present is referred to.

§ 32. The past indefinite is the verb form most frequently used; its range of application is immense, especially in all kinds of narratives.

The past indefinite is used:

Date: 2016-01-03; view: 965