Simple Past Tense–Grammar Rules The simple past is a verb tense that is used to talk about things that happened or existed before now. Imagine someone asks what your brother Wolfgang did while he was in town last weekend. Example Wolfgang entered a hula hoop contest. Example He won the silver medal. The simple past tense shows that you are talking about something that has already happened. Unlike the past continuous tense, which is used to talk about past events that happened over a period of time, the simple past tense emphasizes that the action is finished. Example Wolfgang admired the way the light glinted off his silver medal. You can also use the simple past to talk about a past state of being, such as the way someone felt about something. This is ofte...
Comparative and Superlative Adjectives: Rules and Examples Comparatives One way to describe nouns (people, objects, animals, etc.) is by comparing them to something else. When comparing two things, you’re likely to use adjectives like smaller, bigger, taller, more interesting, and less expensive. Notice the ‑er ending, and the words more and less . A mistake that both native speakers and non-native speakers make is using incorrectly formed comparative adjectives. See the sentences below for an illustration of this common error Incorrect His cat is more large than my dog. Correct His cat is larger than my dog. So what makes the first example wrong and the second right? There are a few rules that explain this: For adjectives that are just one syllable, add -er to the end (this explains the above exam...