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We have seen how the simple past tense is used to talk about
actions and events in the past. Here is another example of
something that happened in the past.
The mothers asked the kids to sit at the table for dinner, but they
did not obey. They simply carried on playing with their pillows.
Although obey does not look like it is a past tense
verb in the sentence, in fact it is. However it appears
in the negative form in the phrase did not obey,
and that is why it is different. The simple past tense
is already represented by did, which is the past
tense of the verb do; therefore, we do not need to
have another verb in the past tense. This is always
the case when we want to use the simple past tense
in the negative form.
The formula for making a verb negative in the simple past tense:
did not obey did + not + infinitive form of the verb
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