Look at these two people. Do you know them? Well, they are Donald Trump and Joe Biden, two of the most important characters in American history in 2020. Let's read some information about them.
2020 is remembered as the year of the Coronavirus pandemic outbreak, but also due to one of the most polemic and egocentric American presidents in history: Donald Trump.
The results of the 46th elections in the USA pointed to Joe Biden as the new president of that country after beating Donald Trump, whose reaction didn't surprise the world.
Trump claimed that the elections were a fraud and invited his followers to express themselves against official results of the elections. He posted during almost 2 months on his social networks: “I didn't lose the elections, I won”, among other posts against Joe Biden and the victory of the Democrats.
Trump's social networks accounts were even closed and almost 10 days before the end of his presidency, in January 2021, he finally accepted his defeat.
Did he really recognize Joe Biden as the winner of the elections? Who knows?
Observe the sentences in bold in the previous information about these two men. Can you identify the tense?
Observe the sentence taken from the text:
There, we have a negative and a positive sentence in the simple past, respectively. In each kind of sentence we need to be careful with the structure, check it out:
| Simple Past (+) | Simple Past (-) |
|
I won In positive sentences, use the regular or irregular verb in past. |
I didn't lose the elections In negative sentences, use didn't and the verb in simple form. |
That's interesting, right? In positive sentences, you only need the subject the verb in past. Check other examples:
| regular or irregular verb in past | complement | |||
|
I You He She It We You They |
went (past of go) swam (past of swim) rescued (past of rescue) ran (past of run) played (past of play) took (past of take) listened (past of listen) did (past of do) |
to the supermarket. in the sea. animals. a marathon 2 years ago. with a ball yesterday. a dance class last night. to music. their homework. |
On the other hand, in negative sentences, you need the auxiliary didn't the verb in simple form. Check this out with the examples:
| didn't verb in simple form | complement | |||
|
I You He She It We You They |
didn't |
go swim rescue run play take listen do |
to the supermarket. in the sea. animals. a marathon 2 years ago. with a ball yesterday. a dance class last night. to music. their homework. |
The auxiliary didn't is the contraction of did not and the meaning is “no”. The most important information that the auxiliary didn't gives is that the sentence is in simple past in negative form.
Let's practice the pronunciation of this auxiliary:
Didn't is pronounced like this:
"did" "nt"
Try to join the sounds in one single word and pronounce it quickly: Didn't.
Remember: Practice makes master!
If you want to practice a little more the pronunciation of Didn't, go to this activity especially prepared for you Pronuntiation practice
Now, for questions we also use an auxiliary: Did and the verb goes in simple form, as the example in the text about Trump and Biden:
That is a question in the simple past, especifically a “yes/no question” because the answer is only yes or no. Pay attention to some examples:
| Did | verb in simple form | complement | ||
|
Did |
I You He She It We You They |
watch buy enjoy go run have do have |
the last episode of my favorite series? a computer last week? the graduation party? to the gym? around the house? our English class? exercise yesterday? dinner at home? |
Now, observe the chart with examples of Wh- questions in simple past. The auxiliary is Did, that refers to the past, and the verb also goes in simple form.
| Wh word | did | Verb in simple form | Complement? | |
|
Where What When Why How Who What time Which series |
did |
I you he she it we you they |
find do meet get eat see start watch |
my glasses? last night? you? angry? that food? in the concert? your session? The Mandalorian or The Witcher? |