Page 96 - Just Enough English Grammar Illustrated Book

Yesterday: Past Tense

The past tense form of “to have” as a main verb is “had.”

Main Verb to have
I had Ben had a pet.
you had
he had, she had, it had
we had
you had
they had
The verb form had is used with all subjects. The name Ben
is the subject of the example sentence above. The form had
indicates that he no longer owns a pet. It indicates a past event:
The action of owning a dog has ended.

4.14 Main and Helping Verbs in Questions
and Statements
Questions
There are two main kinds of questions in English:

Questions beginning with a main or helping verb
Questions beginning with a question marker

For both kinds of questions, you will need to learn about word
order in statements and questions.

Questions Beginning with a Main or Helping Verb
The following illustration shows the subject-position change that
often occurs in questions.
Regular Word Order Inverted Word Order
Subject Verb Helping Verb Subject Main Verb
OR OR
Helping Main
Subject Main Verb Subject
Verb Verb
The Subject in the first position represents regular word order.
With inverted word order, the main or helping verb comes before
the Subject, which follows it in the second position.

A form of “to do,” in either present or past tense,
must be used to form questions,
unless the main verb is the linking verb “to be.”

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