During my school days, my English teacher taught us that there is something called
double past. For example – you don't say –
- I didn't went to school yesterday.
-> He said with didn't you don't use another past verb form.
So, he corrected us
- 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
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)."
The one you say is correct -
is still not correct (if someone told you it was, they are wrong).
Following your heuristic, the right answer is: