Learn English – when to use didn’t and when to say don’t

past-tensetense

During my school days, my English teacher taught us that there is something called
double past. For example – you don't say –

  1. I didn't went to school yesterday.
    -> He said with didn't you don't use another past verb form.

So, he corrected us

  1. I didn't go to school yesterday.

#

Now, I am a bit confused here.

Incorrect Sentence –
1. She would hold my bicycle from the back to ensure that I don't fell down.

Correct One-

She would hold my bicycle from the back to ensure that I didn't fell down.

I am confused here – didn't + fell -> isn't a double past?

What am I missing here? I have seen that I do this mistake a lot. Please help.

Best Answer

He said with didn't you don't use another past verb form.

This is a good heuristic, though I don't recall anything about "double past" in school myself. But it still works.

The technical way to say it is "do can take an auxillary/helping verb, but the only valid auxillary/helping verb for do is the plain or infinitive form (same as present tense)."

She would hold my bicycle from the back to ensure that I don't fell down.

The one you say is correct -

She would hold my bicycle from the back to ensure that I didn't fell down.

is still not correct (if someone told you it was, they are wrong).

Following your heuristic, the right answer is:

She would hold my bicycle fro mthe back to ensure that I didn't fall down.

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