Rewind past tense
Meaning of rewind
to wind back to or toward the beginning.
Infinitive
- 1. Every evening, I rewind my favorite song and listen to it one more time before I go to sleep.
- 2. He always rewinds the tape to the beginning after watching a movie on his old VCR.
- 3. The teacher asks us to rewind our memories to the first day of school and share our experiences.
Past Simple
- 1. Yesterday, I rewound the tape to listen to my favorite song again.
- 2. She rewound the film because we missed the opening scene.
- 3. They rewound the video to catch the details they had missed the first time.
Past Participle
- 1. The movie had been rewound by the time we decided to watch it again.
- 2. The tape was rewound automatically by the machine after it reached its end.
- 3. By the librarian, the old videotapes had been carefully rewound.
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Bare infinitive
- Habitual Actions. When describing habits or routines.Example. 'I always rewind the tape before returning it to the store.'Example. 'This VCR rewinds tapes faster than my old one.'
- General Truths. When stating facts or general truths.Example. 'I always rewind the tape before returning it to the store.'Example. 'This VCR rewinds tapes faster than my old one.'
- Scheduled Events (in the near future). Sometimes used in a narrative way to describe scheduled events, though this is more common with verbs related to arriving, leaving, etc.Example. 'I always rewind the tape before returning it to the store.'Example. 'This VCR rewinds tapes faster than my old one.'
Past Simple
- Completed Actions in the Past. To talk about actions or events that were completed at some definite point in the past.Example. 'I rewound the movie after we finished watching it last night.'Example. 'I rewound the tape, cleaned the heads, and then packed the VCR away.'Example. 'When I was a kid, I always rewound videos before taking them back to the rental store.'
- A Series of Completed Actions. To describe a sequence of actions completed in the past.Example. 'I rewound the movie after we finished watching it last night.'Example. 'I rewound the tape, cleaned the heads, and then packed the VCR away.'Example. 'When I was a kid, I always rewound videos before taking them back to the rental store.'
- Habit in the Past. Sometimes used to talk about habits or routines that were specific to the past (often accompanied by phrases like 'used to' or 'would').Example. 'I rewound the movie after we finished watching it last night.'Example. 'I rewound the tape, cleaned the heads, and then packed the VCR away.'Example. 'When I was a kid, I always rewound videos before taking them back to the rental store.'
Past Participle
- Perfect Tenses. Used in perfect tenses to show that an action was completed at some point in the past or will have been completed at some point in the future.Example. Present Perfect. 'I have already rewound the tape.'Example. Past Perfect. 'By the time the show started, I had already rewound the tape to the beginning.'Example. Future Perfect. 'By this time next week, we will have rewound all the tapes in the archive.'Example. 'The tape was rewound by the staff before the store opened.'
- Passive Voice. Used to form the passive voice, indicating that the subject of the sentence is acted upon.Example. Present Perfect. 'I have already rewound the tape.'Example. Past Perfect. 'By the time the show started, I had already rewound the tape to the beginning.'Example. Future Perfect. 'By this time next week, we will have rewound all the tapes in the archive.'Example. 'The tape was rewound by the staff before the store opened.'
Common mistakes
— 01
Applying wrong ending
A frequent mistake with 'rewind' is attempting to add a regular past tense '-ed' suffix, resulting in 'rewinded' instead of the correct irregular forms 'rewound' for both the past simple and past participle. This error reflects a common inclination to regularize irregular verbs, particularly among learners who might not be familiar with specific irregular verb forms or those who apply the general rule of adding '-ed' for past tense without recognizing exceptions.
— 02
Mispronouncing the past form
Since 'rewind' changes to 'rewound' in its past forms, learners may struggle with the shift in vowel sound from /riˈwaɪnd/ to /riˈwaʊnd/ or /rɪˈwaʊnd/, leading to mispronunciation. They might continue to use the present tense pronunciation pattern for the past tense form, not adjusting to the change in vowel sound that accompanies the shift to 'rewound.' This mistake highlights the challenge of English pronunciation, where spelling changes can result in significant pronunciation shifts that learners need to internalize.
— 03
Confusion over tenses
The fact that 'rewound' serves as both the past simple and past participle form can cause confusion in tense application. Learners might be unsure when to use 'rewound' correctly because it doesn't follow the more familiar pattern of having distinct forms for the past simple and past participle. This confusion may lead to hesitancy or errors in constructing sentences in perfect tenses, such as incorrectly opting for another verb form or misapplying 'rewound' in contexts where its usage doesn't accurately convey the intended time frame or aspect of the action.
Past tense quiz
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