This document provides examples and explanations for forming questions and negative sentences in the past tense in English. It begins with examples of basic past tense questions using "did" and irregular verbs. It then covers forming questions using question words and changing the verb to the past tense. Examples are given for answering questions in the affirmative and negative. The document concludes with a summary of the key points about forming past tense questions and negative sentences.

1. Julia Bollinger

2. To form a question in English, we often use the words What, When, Where, Why,
Who, or How. Sometimes you will also use a form of the verb “to do.”
Some examples of questions in English are:
What is your name?
When are you coming to my party?
Where is Lucas?
Why are you here?
How are you?
Do you study English?

3. Match each question in the box to answers below.
Why are you going to the mall? Where is my book?
When is my next class? Who is my teacher?
What color is your car?
What color is your car?
_________________________________
My car is blue.
Who is my teacher?
Your teacher’s name is Mrs. Andrews. _________________________________
When is my next class?
Your next class is at 10:30 a.m. ________________________________
Your book is in your locker. Where is my book?
_________________________________
Why are you going to the mall?
_________________________________
I need to buy new shoes.

4. For many English verbs, we add –ed to make it express an idea in the past.
There are also many irregular verbs that you’ve learned. Some examples of
sentences in the past tense are:
They played outside.
She walked home.
I went to the store.
The students studied.
He was in school yesterday.
You brought your lunch to school.

5. Change each of the following sentences into the simple past tense.
She runs. She ran.
______________________________________
I walk to the store. I walked to the store.
______________________________________
They swim in the pool. They swam in the pool.
______________________________________
You practiced soccer.
You practice soccer. ______________________________________
We went to school.
We go to school. ______________________________________

6. Sometimes you may want to ask someone about something they did in the
past. In order to do this, you will need to combine two things you’ve already
learned:
1.) Speaking in the Simple Past Tense
2.) Asking questions
When asking questions in the past tense, many times we need to use the verb
“Did” and a present tense verb.
Here is an example:
Past tense sentence Past tense question
She borrowed the keys. Did she borrow the keys?

7. Another way to ask a question in the past tense,
Is by using a question word and changing the verb to the past tense.
EXAMPLE A:
In present tense, we would ask “Who plays baseball?”
To make this question past tense, we still use our question word, “Who” and change the
verb “plays” to “played.”
The present tense question “Who plays baseball?”
changes to “Who played baseball?” in the past tense.
EXAMPLE B:
In present tense, we would ask “When do you sing?”
To make this question past tense, we still use our question word,
“When” and change the verb “do” to “did.” Note that the verb “sing”
does not change because we already changed the verb “do”.
The present tense question “When do you sing?”
changes to “When did you sing?” in the past tense.

8. 1. They saw the movie last week. Did they see the movie last week?
2. Anna wrote him a letter. Did Anna write him a letter?
3. He bought a new car last year. Did he buy a new car last year?
4. I arrived late for class. Did I arrive late for class?
5. He walked to work yesterday. Did he walk to work yesterday?

9. Before we can answer these questions, we need to identify the verb we will use in
our answer. In each of the following questions, which verb will we change to the
past tense to form our response?
1. Did you look for the dog or the cat?
2. Did he drop the bowl or the cup?
3. Did he smoke the pipe or the cigar?
4. Did you practice the guitar or the flute?
5. Did she play with the fish or the turtle?
6. Did they wash their hands or their feet?
7. Did you speak to your grandfather or your cousin?
8. Did you drive your BMW or your scooter?
9. Did you feel great or did you feel terrible?
10. Did you hurt your leg or your foot?

10. Now that we have identified the verb we need to use in each of the
sentences, let’s answer the question.
1. Did you look for the dog or the cat? I looked for the dog.
2. Did he drop the bowl or the cup? He dropped the cup.
3. Did he smoke the pipe or the cigar? He smoked the pipe.
4. Did you practice the guitar or the flute? I practiced the flute.
5. Did she play with the fish or the turtle? She played with the turtle.
6. Did they wash their hands or their feet? They washed their hands.
7. Did you speak to your grandfather or your cousin? I spoke with my grandfather.
8. Did you drive your BMW or your scooter? I drove my BMW.
9. Did you feel great or did you feel terrible? I felt great.
10. Did you hurt your leg or your foot? I hurt my foot.

11. Sometimes when we will want to answer questions with a negative response.
In the present tense, we answer these questions with the phrase “do not” or “does
not”, which can also be used in the contraction forms “don’t” and “doesn’t”.
Example:
Do you swim? No, I don’t swim.
Does Jim read everyday? No, Jim does not read everyday.
In the past tense, we will answer with “did not” or the contraction, “didn’t”.
Did you swim? No, I didn’t swim.
Did Jim read everyday? No, Jim did not read everyday.

12. Answer each question with a negative response.
Did you study? No, I did not study.
Did I walk the dog? No, I did not walk the dog.
Did she practice the piano? No, she did not practice the piano.
Did we know him? No, we did not know him.
Did they go to the beach? No, they did not go to the beach.

13. Today we learned how to
1.) use past tense questions
2.) create negative past sentences.
PAST TENSE QUESTIONS NEGATIVE PAST SENTENCES
-Use “Did” with the present tense verb. -Use “did not” or “didn’t” to express the
Example: Did he study? past tense.
Did you call me? Example: I did not study.
-Use the question word “Who” and the past I didn’t call you.
tense form of the verb.
Example: Who called you?
Who took the pen?

14. SOURCES
http://members.iinet.net.au/~adelegc/grammar/past_tense/past_simple_quests.html
http://www.thunderbay.org/upload/documents/Past-Tense-Did.pdf
http://ww2.college-em.qc.ca/prof/epritchard/partypqf.htm
http://eslsupport.com/?page_id=66