past tense

A verb tense (the second principal part of a verb) indicating action that occurred in the past and which does not extend into the present. Regular past tense verbs end in -d, -ed, or -t; irregular verbs have a variety of endings.

Examples and Observations:

• "The past tense includes any action or state of being that we could find between the dawn of time and a split second before the present."
  (Michael Strumpf and Auriel Douglas, The Grammar Bible, Owl Books, 2004)



• "I told the doctor I broke my leg in two places. He told me to quit going to those places."
  (Henny Youngman)



• "I dreamed a thousand new paths. I woke and walked my old one."
  (Chinese proverb)



• "Fine words! I wonder where you stole them."
  (Jonathan Swift)



• "Generally [the simple past] tense refers to events, habitual activities, and states in the past: I talked to my brother this morning; The Normans conquered England in 1066; He went to London every day; It contained sugar. In the 'sequence of tenses' rule in reported speech, it restates the present tense of the original utterance: 'He likes chocolate' as reported in She said he liked chocolate. However, the present tense may be retained if the state of affairs being reported is covered by the time of speaking: John said he likes chocolate. It is used to express unreality, especially in unreal conditional sentences (If John came, Mary would leave; compare If John comes, Mary will leave), with wishes and recommendations, etc. (I wish I knew; It's time we went), and for tentativeness or politeness (Did you want to talk to me?)."
  (Frank R. Palmer and Sidney Greenbaum, "Tense," The Oxford Companion to the English Language, ed. by Tom McArthur, Oxford Univ. Press, 1992)