Past simple

Question

Can I write simple past without specific time whenever I want and someone told me that if you wanna use simple past without time you can use, but time should be understand by the context? How time can be understand by context.Even there is no time?

Stephanie. · Accepted Answer

Before I answer your question, I would like to ask you to try to organize your thought before writing a question. When we write in a foreign language it is harder, but it is also a way to put into practice what we already know. Your text is not easy to follow and it has many mistakes. It seems like you have the ability to produce better texts; this is the reason I made this comment.

Abou

About your question: We use simple past to refer to a completed action that took place at a specific time in the past. Time markers (e.g. yesterday, last week, 10 years ago etc.) show when the action happened. Imagine that you have a discussion with a friend about your holidays last summer. When you describe what you did during your holidays, you will use simple past; you will not have to use time markers all the time, since you both already know that everything happened last summer. Is is clear now?

Anonymous · Answer

G. Singh, If you are serious about improving your English skills, next time when you post a question, please take the time and practice using the English knowledge you already have in your question. Can I write simple past (sentences) without specific time (marker)? whenever I want and Someone told me that if (I) you (want to) wanna use simple past without time (marker) ~~you~~ I can ~~use~~, but time should be (understood) understand by the context?. How time can be understand by context.Even there is no time? How can the context be understood with no time marker?

Generally speaking, past time marker is used to mark /describe an event or something which happened in the past. Your question is, how can the context be understood without past time marker? There are times in a conversation in which two people are engaged in a dialog, the exchange may not need a time marker to be understood. ie " Nick had an interview with Apple (yesterday), he felt he did well". In this example, the core meaning is understood without the past time marker, which actually is called adverb of time.

I picked up a pizza on the way home, want some?" No marker.

John ate the whole pie! No marker.

CalifJim · Answer

G. SinghCan I write simple past without specific time

Yes, of course you can! You can write any sentence in any tense without mentioning a specific time.

G. Singhsomeone told me that if you ~~wanna~~ want to use simple past without a mention of time you can use that, but time should be understood by the context ???

That's not really correct. There is nothing special that you have to do to make the time understood. The time can be left vague.

For example,

Pete received his education at the University of Michigan.

We don't know when this happened. The writer wanted us to know about the University of Michigan, not about the time. When this happened was not important to the writer.

CJ

CalifJim · Answer

Maybe you are trying to work out the difference between the simple past and the present perfect.

1. Simple past with no mention of time: OK
2. Simple past with mention of time: OK
3. Present perfect with no mention of time: OK
4. Present perfect with mention of time: WRONG

Examples:

1. Leslie took Robert to the bank. OK
2. Leslie took Robert to the bank two hours ago. OK
3. Leslie has taken Robert to the bank. OK
4. Leslie has taken Robert to the bank two hours ago. WRONG

CJ

AlpheccaStars · Answer

G. SinghCan I write simple past without specific time whenever I want

If the event is complete and it happened in the past, yes. The time in the past can be indicated in many different ways.

Ned liked his first-grade teacher. (The context tells us that this happened when Ned was 6 or 7 years old.)

Our uncle perished in the 9/11 attack.

Mr. Gupta just arrived. ("Just" is a time marker.)
We started the meeting when Mr. Gupta arrived. (There is no explicit time given, but there is a time-marker indicated by Mr. Gupta's arrival.)
We started yesterday's meeting at exactly 3:10 pm. (Explicit time)

Anonymous · Answer

You are contradicting yourself. You said you understood the rules but you keep saying " I want to use it any time I want." You know and we know, if the context is clear, past time marker is not mandatory. But when we want to context to be more relevant in time, then we have to use time markers as CJ has given you all the tense scenarios. Also, remember time markers, present or past, are adverb of time, so use them within the rules which you may still need to polish. For the suggestions that Stephanie gave you are very valid. If you are so consumed with the past time marker while you still have a lot of grammar issues, you are only impeding your own progress.

Anonymous · Answer

Insight and comments:

"wanna", " gonna" and words of that nature are bad English. You have used that repeatedly on this topic alone, just so you know. We can not explain every scenario in grammar, nor can you set the rules in stone. One has to use his judgment and English knowledge to evaluate when a certain rule should be applied to a context and what good English should look and sound like within the confine of grammar rules. I know achieving all these seem so remotely away, but if you just follow the advice from the experts, you will get there in time. In the meantime, keep practicing and keep writing.

Past simple

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