PAST TENSE

PAST TENSE

Past tense, Indicative mood has one single form for all the persons, exception is the verb TO BE and the irregular verbs. The suffix -ed is added to the short infinitive of the verb which is conjugated.

to work (sg.) I worked, you worked, he worked

(pl.) we worked, you worked, they worked

The verb TO BE has two different forms for the singular persons:

to be I was; you were; he, she, it was

The irregular verbs have very different forms for their Past tense:

to write, wrote; to read, read;

to speak, spoke; to eat, eaten; to drink, drank

to put, put, to cut, cut; to bring, brought

Speaking about orthography, one has to take into account some rules such as:

verbs ended in a consonant preceded by a single stressed vowel, double the consonant before ed suffix:

to rub- rubbed; to knit-knitted

to prefer preferred

to regret - regretted

In all the other cases, the final consonant is not doubled:

to seat seated; to hang-hanged;

to order ordered; to pardon pardoned

Exception is to worship worshipped

Compound verbs, ended in p obey the above mentioned rule, applied to the final word:

to sideslip sideslipped

to kidnap- kidnapped

final l is always doubled, no matter where the accent is placed

to equal equaled

to rival rivaled

to compel compelled

Exception to the rule is: unparalleled

ic is changed into -ick

to mimic mimicked

to traffic trafficked

-y, in a final position is turned into i if preceded by a consonant:

to cry cried

to try - tried

when a vowel is before it, it suffers no change:

to play played

to disobey disobeyed

silent e is dropped in front of ed

to dance danced

to dye dyed

Past Tense Indicative expresses a past action or a state completely finished, done in a determined past moment or in a determined past period of time. In all the cases, the action or state the tense makes reference to, is completely separated from the present through an interval of time. Because of its meaning, this tense is used for narration.

The time used for expressing the action may be rendered in the following ways:

adverb of time or adjective like :yesterday; two days/a week/ a month/ a year ago; last week/ month/year; then; when or any adverb that indicates the time in the past: as soon as; at that time; just now; the day before; the other day;

I was there yesterday.

We saw him ten minutes ago.

They asked for my help the day before.

As a boy, I used to play football.

verb in the past:

She was playing in the garden, when we arrived.

Hardly did we arrive at home, when she rang at the door.

the context when it expresses the speakers intention

Did they work in the garden?

Was she on duty yesterday?

A new film was presented on the screen.

Where did they go?

Past tense Indicative may be used for replacing:

Past Perfect Tense

They thought that they discovered(= had discovered) a new fairy land.(Credeau ca descoperisera o noua tara de basm)

according to the sequence of tenses rules, it stands for a present tense, when the verb in the main clause is in the past:

He said that the book was on the table A spus ca cartea este pe masa.)

He asked me how we were.(Ne-a intrebat cum suntem).

according to the same sequence of tenses, it is used for expressing a future action as opposed to the past action of the main clause:

I was told to wait until Mary came there( Mi s-a spus sa astempt pana va veni Maria).

Ben asked Bob to take care of his house until he was away(Ben i-a cerut lui Bob sa aiba grija de casa lui in timp ce era plecat.)

Past tense Indicative is translated into Romanian by means of: perfectul simplu, perfectul compus si imperfectul. The first two tenses are used for expressing past events when the action expressed by the verb has a momentaneous character:

We went to the theatre last week

They called Peter and told him the truth.

The 3^rd is used with verbs whose actions are lasting or repeated:

She sat there waiting for her mother.

They used the books they found in the library.

Taking into account the rules of sequence of tenses, Past tense Indicative may be translated by means of:

mai mult ca perfectul for rendering actions that took place before a past action

prezentul when the idea of present is rendered

viitorul when we speak about a future action as opposed to a past one

I said that I would go in the mountains the coming week

(First I told about the coming events, later, they will occur

after the moment of speech.)