Usage of past tense

[John Erskin]

This one is easy. In a negative sentence the auxillay verb carries the tense, not
the main verb. So in your example, since 'do' is in the past tense, you must use
come and not came.

Compare the following sentences.
1). I did not come home.
2) I did not went home.
Which is correct? Number 1, of course.
Let's examine the sentence in its positive form.

I came home.

Notice that there is no aux. verb (~to be~) in the sentence. Therefore, to make
the sentence negative we have to add 'do' . We now move do to the place directly
after the subject 'I' and add the negative 'not'. So, now we have the sentence

I do not came home.

Since, the aux. verb (in this case 'do') carries the tense we have to change the
main verb to simple present and the aux. verb to past.

I did not come home.

As stated earlier, decause the aux. verb 'do' is in the past, the main verb must
be in the simple present.

Hope this helps.

For more grammar tips why not sign up for my mailing list. I will send you a new
grammar tip each week explaining the form and structure of the grammar item plus
examples of usage. To subscribe either go to my homepage at
http://johnsesl.terrashare.com/
or send a blank e-mail to
JohnsESLGramm...@mygoldclub.com

sudhakar wrote:

> Hai all,
> I have one question on past tense usage.
> Which one of the following is correct any why ?
>
> 1)He did not come to office.
> 2)He did not came to offece.
>
> In my view first one is correct. Why I cant use pasttense of verb i.e. came.
>
> sudhakar.