Time Phrases Used with the Past Tense

Let’s look at a few more examples on how we might use the simple past tense in everyday conversations.

Note: Time phrases that tell us when the event/action happened are shown in purple below.

Example 1

I lived in Tsim Sha Tsui for 3 years.

我以前喺尖沙咀住過三年。（但無講邊三年）

Example 2

During Thomas Edison’s lifetime, he held many patents.

（科學家）愛迪生在他的一生中擁有多項發明專利。

Example 3

When I was 5 years old, I lived with my grandmother.

我五歲時同我婆婆一齊住。

Example 4 

I knew.

我已經知道了。（但無講幾時知道嘅）

 Example 5

The book was on the table.

本書頭先喺枱面。（但無講頭先幾耐之前）

當Past Tense走在Timeline上

Is the action over or completed?

Today we are going to use timelines to explain how to use the Past Tense in some common scenarios.

當我哋要描述一件發生咗或者已經完成嘅事情，就會用到 Past Tense。而發生咗好耐或者唔係好耐都可以。就算係啱啱發生，只要件事已經完成同埋無延伸至同現在 ( now ) 有關連就無問題啦。

Here are a few examples.

Case 1 => 句子講喺以前嘅邊一刻發生咗乜嘢事

The bus left 3 minutes ago.

㗎巴士喺三分鐘前走咗。

Case 2 => 句子無講幾時發生，只講乜嘢事發生咗

I fell.

我頭先跌倒。

Case 3 => 件事喺以前嘅一個時期發生咗

Michael Jackson was a very popular singer during the 1980s.

米高積遜在八十年代是一名非常受歡迎的歌手。

喂，你做咗第 11 題未呀？

Tom:  Hey, have you done question 11?

Ken:  _______________________

如果你係 Ken，應該答 A 還是 B 呢？

(A)  Yes, I have done it 5 minutes ago.

(B)  Yes, I did it 5 minutes ago.

等我哋先講多少少背景資料，答案將會喺後面揭曉。

上回講到用 Present Perfect Tense 去描述一個直到這一刻為止的狀況。

例如：

We have raised three million dollars.

直至現時為止，我們已經籌得三百萬善款。

你可能會問，既然我哋可以用 Present Perfect Tense 去描述已經發生咗嘅事情，咁點解又有 Past Tense（過去式）呢？

因為 Past Tense 除了說明一件事情已經發生了之外，還可以提到它係什麼時候發生。

而當我哋用 Present Perfect Tense 時卻不可以講幾時，否則係文法上就屬於不正確，句子會變成 ungrammatical 㗎啦。如上面的例子只說已經籌得三百萬善款，卻沒有提到係幾時籌到。這方面的資料係唔需要交代嘅，可能發生係剛剛一分鐘前，又或者係兩個鐘頭前。 So we don’t know when it happened exactly.

來到這裏，也許你已經知道上面嘅正確答案就係 B。

而 A 在文法上係唔正確嘅 ( ungrammatical ) 。