Common Expressions in Simple Past

Do you want to improve your spoken English?  The answer to this question is always positive, right?  But the real question is how.  How to learn English?  How to speed up your learning?  

Well, one thing that troubles people are tenses.  And do you know that some sentences are usually in the simple past?  What do I mean?  Before you know more about it, read the following:

I do not know that Mr. Lazy did it.  

The sentence looks right, but actually it is not.  Absolutely not.  What is wrong with it?  There is something wrong with the tense of ‘I do not know that’.  In the tense world of English, it should be ‘I didn’t know that’.

Why?

I don’t know VS I didn’t know

Well, just imagine.  Imagine what?  Imagine now is the moment you say ‘I do not know that Mr. Lazy did it’.   And then ask yourself a question:

Do you know it now?

Yes, you know it now.  So what you do not know is something before now?  And something before now is something in the past.  The reason behind becomes easy to get when you read the following:

before now = in the past

So now it is clear that when you use ‘know’ to talk about the information that ‘Mr. Lazy did it’, it is something in the past.  And the obvious choice for things in the past is not ‘I do not know’, but:

I didn’t know that Mr. Lazy did it

Other Common Expressions in Simple Past

Actually the before-now rule also applies to other common expressions in spoken English.  

a. When you make a decision:

e.g. I made up my mind where to go for my next trip.

b. When you forget something:

e.g. Oh, sorry, I forgot to bring the document.

c. When you do not recognize someone:

e.g. Oh, boss, I am sorry I didn’t recognize you in the crowd.