Pippa Middleton’s sister, Kate knew what was going to pappen to her when she got married to Prince William. She knew that she would be photographed by the paparazzi every day of her life. But did Pippa know that it would be the same for her? Did she understand that after wearing a stunning dress at the ‘wedding of the century’ that almost every moment of her life would be examined under the media spotlight? I think that she was probably aware that things would change for her (being the sister of a princess), but I bet that she didn’t anticipate that it would be this intense. Simple past In the last few days, the British press didn’t only write one story about ‘Her Royal Hotness’ (as they have renamed her), but a seemingly endless stream of articles appeared. The newspapers are Pippa-tastic these days: Pippa at the French Open, Pippa running in a race, Pippa’s possible new job and even a piece about Pippa’s best friends. Where will it end? Pippa eats cornflakes for breakfast? Did the general public want to read about her all weekend? Well, if they did, they are probably sick of the Pippa-hype by now. Did anybody know about Pippa Middleton 2 months ago? Did anybody care? No. However, it’s not her fault; she didn’t do anything wrong. She didn’t employ a management team to promote herself like lots of Z-list celebrities do in the UK (Yes, I’m talking about you, Jordan), with endless staged photo opportunities to feed the tabloid newspapers’ desire for more celebrity shots. Unfortunately, this Pippa frenzy is the modus operandi for the tabloids; they find a new ‘star’, build them up into a celebrity very quickly, and then try to destroy them when they make their first mistake, like wearing the ‘wrong’ dress, coming out of a nightclub drunk or having an affair (mentioning no names, Ryan Giggs). So, did Pippa want the attention? Yes, she probably wanted some of the trappings of fame, but she probably didn’t expect it to be 24/7. DID usage
- (Question) Did she want the attention?
- (Negative) She didn’t want the attention.
- (Positive) She wanted the attention
Notice that in the Question and Negative, we use DID or DIDN’T and then the infinitive (want) In the positive, we don’t normally use the ‘past’ helping verb (auxiliary verb) DID. We use the past simple of the main verb (want), which is WANTED in the example above.
- (Question) Did she know she would be photographed 24/7?
- (Negative) She didn’t know she would be photographed 24/7.
- (Positive) She knew she would be photographed 24/7