THE PAST TENSE
PAST PRESENT
Past tenses in English have several distinctive grammatical structures and functions. The first thing for you to note is that these are irregular and they are described as strong verbs and weak verbs, as far as the form of the simple past tense and past participle are concerned. That is, the vowel of the stem of the verb changes completely, just like German.
The weak verbs are very easy to learn and to use because there is very little that changes. The ending "ed" is added to the main stem, to form the simple past and also to form the past participle.
The parts to be learnt are usually given in this way:
| Infinitive | past simple | past participle |
|---|---|---|
| to consider | considered | considered |
Here is an example from the work done in class.
| WEAK | simple present | simple past | past participle |
|---|---|---|---|
| I move | I moved, you moved, etc. | I have moved, you have moved, etc. | |
| I talk | I talked | I have talked | |
| STRONG | |||
| I sing | I sang | I sung | |
| I swim | I swam | I have swum | |
| I drink | I drank | I have drunk |
Not all strong verbs change in this way. I have given you two lists which give you all the different types. Unfortunately, you really have to learn them by heart and practise using them.
There is a list for complete beginners to refer to at the end, which gives the Greek words.