Resnanda, Maudy Fitriane. 2025. A Descriptive Study about the Types of Errors in the Use of Simple Past Tense at SMP Negeri 25 Banjarmasin. Sarjana’s Thesis, English Department, Faculty of Teaching Training and Education, Lambung Mangkurat University, Banjarmasin. The first Advisor: Dr. Jumariati, M.Pd., and the second advisor: Fahmi Hidayat, M.Pd.

Keywords: errors in using English tenses, simple past.

The error patterns in using English tenses, especially simple past, committed by Indonesian students as EFL learners can be seen from the L1 interference, limited language proficiency, or misunderstanding the rules such as changing regular and irregular verbs, and auxiliaries to become verb 2. Due to this matter, this study was to find out the errors in the use of simple past tense made by Indonesian students as EFL learners at the junior high school level.

  This study used a descriptive quantitative method. The population was the eighth-grade students at SMP Negeri 25 Banjarmasin year 2023/2024 and by using cluster sampling, 23 students were selected. The instrument of this study was a grammar test, and it was in the form of multiple-choice with 40 questions. The students were given 60 minutes to answer the test.

The multiple-choice test findings revealed that the students committed 702 errors. Students committed 329 errors (47%) in omission, 151 errors (21.5%) in misordering, 140 errors (20%) in misformation, and 82 errors (11.6%) in addition. As a result, the omission was the most frequent error type that appeared. Misordering and misformation emerged as notable challenges, while the addition type was the least frequent error.

Based on the result, it is suggested that the students make a list table of the most common and useful verbs that are easy to apply and memorize. Furthermore, this study can be a useful reference for future researchers who are interested in errors of grammar field or English tenses.