I was slept when he came back to the home.
The above statement has three verbs in the past tense.
- was = is
- slept = sleep
- came = come
My questions:
-
Are "I was slept" and "he came back to home" grammatically correct?
-
Can I use all these past tenses in a sentence like this?
- If it's correct what about the below statement?
I did not go there
In this statement "did" define it is a past tense of "do" but "go" never change to past tense.
So in the first example, all the verbs are changed into the past tense but in the second example, some verbs are not changed.
If both statements are correct, why can we use them like this?
Best Answer
The sentence as it stands there is not correct.
This is due to the circumstance that to sleep is usually an intransitive verb that does not take an object. With the leading was the construction would be passive voice, but English doesn't use intransitive verbs that way. However, intransitive verbs can use the past continuous and thereby was sleeping.
Admittedly there are transitive uses of sleep, but they do not fit in the construction of the sentence in the question.
The problem with intransitive verbs is that they don't go over into a passive voice. I.e. you can't be slept. If it was a transitive verb that took an object that would easily be understood. Take the transitive verb to slap for example.
This sentence offers two explanations at once. Firstly it's homophone to the sentence from the original question. Thus, it might be what was spoken if the question is based on something heard.
Secondly it shows that two past tense verbs can actually be just simple past but in a passive construction.