Hi there!
Hi!
What did you do yesterday?
I went outside and played tennis with my friends.
Did you have a good time?
Yeah.
That’s good.
Okay.
When we talk about something in the past, we have to change a verb.
Today, I play tennis.
But yesterday, I …
… played tennis.
Right.
So what did we change?
We added ‘-ed’ at the end of ‘play’.
Exactly.
Can we add ‘-ed’ to other verbs to make them past?
Yep, most of them,
but not all of them.
Right, there are some special verbs that change in different ways.
We call these irregular verbs.
Do you know some examples?
Sure I do!
eat/ate, sit/sat,
go/went, have/had.
Nice job!
Okay, you already know how to make the verbs past, so we won’t focus on that this time.
But we don’t just use verbs by themselves.
In this video, we’ll look at whole sentences
and make sure we’re making them past in the correct way.
Sounds good.
Okay, the first thing we need to do is look at some helping verbs.
What are those?
Those are the little verbs that go in front of the main verbs sometimes.
Words like ‘is’ or ‘can’ or ‘have’.
Oh, I know those.
Alright, what are some others?
‘do’, ‘does’,
‘am’, ‘are’,
‘has’,
… I think that’s it.
Good.
There are some others, but these are the most common ones.
What’s the past form of am/is/are?
was and were.
Good.
I’m going to write all of our past verbs in blue.
What’s next?
do, does, and did.
Right.
have/has/had.
… I don’t know the last one.
can/could.
Oh, right.
Do you know why these are important?
No, why?
Because if you use one of these helping verbs in a past sentence,
that word must be past.
Okay?
Okay.
Main verbs are sometimes past, but sometimes not.
But how do you know when main verbs should be past?
Let’s find out.
How about another sentence?
Let’s start with present, not past yet.
“Hannah goes to the store.”
Great.
To see how the same verb can change in different ways,
let’s look at some similar sentences with ‘goes’.
Is “Hannah goes to the store” positive, negative, or a question?
It’s positive.
What’s the negative form of the same sentence?
“Hannah doesn’t go to the store.”
And what if I wanted to ask it as a question?
A yes/no question.
Um … “Does Hannah go to the store?”
Now we’ve got all three!
What are the verbs?
‘Go’ and ‘goes’.
Good.
Anything else?
Oh, ‘does’.
Right.
Okay, what’s the past of go/goes?
went.
And what’s the past of does?
did.
Yep.
Now, if we change all of the verbs to past, what do we get?
“Did Hannah went to the store?”
“Hannah went to the store.”
“Hannah didn’t went to the store.”
Uh-oh, that’s not right.
Well, the positive sentence is right,
but the question and negative sentence are wrong.
So we can’t just make all the verbs past, to make the whole sentence past?
That’s right.
In fact, we can only make one of them past.
Because the past verbs are blue, I call this the “one blue word” rule.
The positive sentence only has one blue word.
And that’s why that sentence is okay.
But let’s look at the question.
Right now, it has two blue words, so we need to change one of them back to present.
Does it matter which one?
Definitely.
Remember, if you have a helping verb in a past sentence,
that helping verb needs to be past.
Oh yeah.
In our example, which is the helping verb?
‘Did’.
Keep that one the same, and change ‘went’ back to present.
“Did Hannah go to the store?”
Now it’s good.
What about the negative sentence?
It still has two blue words, and ‘did’ is supposed to be blue,
so we should change ‘went’ back to ‘go’.
“Hannah didn’t go to the store.”
Well done!
That’s it?
Yep, that’s it.
Now you try.
Here are some different sentences in present form.
Can you make them past?
I think so.
Remember only one word can be blue past.
If you have a helping verb, that’s what needs to be past;
if you don’t have one, then the main verb can be past instead.
Go ahead.
“Daniel can climb trees.”
What’s the verb?
‘Climb’.
Can climb.
Good.
Which one should you make past?
‘Can’.
Can changes to could.
Daniel could climb trees when he was five.
Well done!
How about the next one?
“Are you watching TV tonight?”
The verbs are “are” and “watching.”
Okay.
Make one of them past.
‘Are’ is the helping verb, so we have to make that past.
‘Was’? No. 'Were'?
“Were you watching TV last night?”
Very nice!
“Laura swims in the ocean.”
The main verb is ‘swim’.
There’s no helping verb.
Hm. So what now?
Well, swim can be past, right?
There has to be one blue past verb,
and swim is the only verb, so that has to be past.
That’s right!
Okay, then, “Laura swam in the ocean.”
Excellent.
Last one.
“I haven’t got any chalk.”
The verbs are ‘have’ and ‘got’.
If we only change one, we change ‘have’ to ‘had’.
So, “I hadn’t got any chalk.”
You’ve done it!
Nice job!
Thanks!
So next time you have to make a past sentence, remember the “One Blue Word” rule.
Got it!