Simple past

 The Past Simple Tense:

 

·         Spelling Tip:

 

Regular verbs in the past simple

·         Add ed to most verbs. Ex. talk > talked, employ > employed

·         If a short verb ends with a consonant-vowel-consonant, double the last letter and then add ed. Ex. stop > stopped, top > topped
However, do not double the last letter if the verb ends in w, x or y. Ex. play > played, mix > mixed.

 

·         In longer words, if the last syllable of the verb ends with a consonant-vowel-consonant and that syllable is stressed, double the last consonant and then add ed. Ex. prefer > preferred
However, do not double the last letter if the first syllable is stressed. Ex. enter > entered

·         If the verb ends in e, just add d. Ex. create > created, live > lived

·         If the verb ends in a consonant + y, change the y to i and add ed. Ex. try > tried

The past simple tense is quite straightforward. The main problem is its spelling rules, which you’ll find below.

We use the past simple to describe an action that started in the past and ended in the past. It could be something that happened twenty years ago or something that happened two minutes ago. It started. It stopped. It’s over.

1.                      I visited a client in London yesterday.

2.                      She planned the event all by herself.

The most common time expressions used for the past simple are: yesterday, a week (month, year) ago, last (month, year, weekend, Monday) night, the day before yesterday, two days (months, years) ago. The time expression appears either at the beginning or at the end of the sentence – never in the middle of the sentence.

 

 

Forming the Past Simple:

 

Subject	Verb + d, ed, ied or irregular form (V2)	Rest of Sentence
I / He / She / It You / We / They	walked	to the shop yesterday
	slept	late last Saturday

 

The past simple is usually formed by adding d, ed, or ied to the base form of the verb, however, in English there are many irregular verbs that take on a completely different form in the past tense. Some people call this the V2 form of the verb. The best thing to do is to try and memorize them.

 

1-Negative Sentences in the Past Simple Tense:

 

Spelling Tip:

 

When shortening the 3rd person (he, she, it) negative, just remove the o in not and add an apostrophe (‘)
did not > didn’t

To create a negative sentence in the past simple, use didn’t (did not) + the base form of the verb.

Note: Save the long forms (did not) for when you want to create emphasis. When speaking, put the stress on ‘not’.

Subject	didn’t + verb in the base form	Rest of Sentence
I / He / She / It You / We / They	didn’t walk	to the shop yesterday
	didn’t sleep	late last Saturday

EXAMPLES:

 

 

 

 

 

1.                      I didn’t talk to John yesterday.

2.                      He didn’t steal those ideas from the company.

3.                      You didn’t show me the photos from the wedding.

4.                      Ron did not sign the document.

 

Yes/No Questions in the Past Simple:

 

To create a question that will be answered with a yes or no, start the question with Did, then add a subject (the person or thing that does the action) followed by the base form of the verb and only then add the rest of the sentence.

Auxiliary Verb	Subject	verb in base form	rest of sentence
Did	I / you / we / they	walk	to the shop yesterday
	he / she / it	sleep	late last Saturday

1.                      Did you ask Tina to go out with you?

2.                      Did the employees stay late again last night?

3.                      Did Rob finish his assignment yesterday?

 

1-          Wh-Questions in the Past Simple:

 

Wh- questions are questions that require more information in their answers. Typical wh- words are what, where, when, why, who, how, how many, how much.

To create a wh-question, start with the wh-word, then add did (or didn’t for a negative question), then the subject (a person or thing that does the action), followed by the base form of the verb and only then add the rest of the sentence.

Wh-word	auxiliary verb	subject	verb in base form	rest of sentence
What	did	I / you / we / they he / she / it	sell	the house
Why	didn’t		rescue	me

1.                      When did you buy that sweater?

2.                      Why did the computer break down?

3.                      How long did the train journey take?

4.                      Why didn’t you tell me about the accident?

 

Tag Questions in the Past Simple:

 

Tag questions are those short questions that are tagged onto the end of a sentence. They are used just to make sure the person you’re talking to understood what you meant or to emphasize what you said.

They’re formed either by using a positive sentence in the past simple and then adding didn’t, a pronoun (I, you, we, they, he, she, it) and a question mark.

1.                      John scored a goal, didn’t he?

2.                      Their dogs barked all night, didn’t they?

You may also add a positive tag when you’re using a negative sentence.

1.                      Kate didn’t take out the rubbish bin, did she?

2.                      The girls didn’t copy on the exam, did they?

As a rule: When the sentence is positive, the tag is negative.
When the sentence is negative, the tag is positive.

Exercises with the Past Simple Tense

Fill in the correct form of the verb in the past simple as in the

 

 

examples.

1.                      David saw his History professor at the supermarket two days ago. (see)

2.                      I didn’t know your e-mail address, so I phoned instead. (not know/pone)

3.                      Did you get the message I left the day before yesterday? (Leave)

 

 

 

1.                      I _______ a great book last week. (read)

2.                      _______ Adam ______ the jacket that he _______ at the party? (find / leave)

3.                      Why _______ you__________ for me at the bar yesterday evening? (not wait)

4.                      I _________ for over an hour, but you never __________ up! (wait / show)

5.                      My friends _________ to New Delhi via Mumbai a week ago. (fly)

6.                      Teresa ___________ the last train, _______________? (catch)

7.                      The sunset _________ beautiful last night. (be)

8.                      _______ they _________ the client’s deadline yesterday? (meet)

9.                      When _____ he ___________ from med school? (graduate)

10.             Ella ___________ to get a hold of you, but you ________ home. (try/not be)

Answers:

1.                      read

2.                      Did/find/left

3.                      didn’t/wait

4.                      waited/showed

5.                      flew

6.                      caught/ didn’t she

7.                      was

8.                      Did/meet

9.                      did/graduate

10.             tried/weren’t

 

Examples – Past Simple

 

Positive

 

1.                      I visited a client in London yesterday.

2.                      She planned the event all by herself.

 

Negative

 

1.                      I didn’t talk to John yesterday.

2.                      He didn’t steal those ideas from the company.

3.                      You didn’t show me the photos from the wedding.

4.                      Ron did not sign the document.

 

Yes/No Questions:

 

1.                      Did you ask Tina to go out with you?

2.                      Did the employees stay late again last night?

3.                      Did Rob finish his assignment yesterday?

 

Wh-Questions:

 

1.                      When did you buy that sweater?

2.                      Why did the computer break down?

3.                      How long did the train journey take?

4.                      Why didn’t you tell me about the accident?

Tag Questions

 

1.                      John scored a goal, didn’t he?

2.                      Their dogs barked all night, didn’t they?

3.                      Kate didn’t take out the rubbish bin, did she?

4.                      The girls didn’t copy on the exam, did they?

 

*Put a video with the simple past form and regular verbs.

* make examples and sentences.

 

1-Regular and irregular verbs in the simple past List:

 

What are Regular Verbs?

Regular verbs in English create the past simple and past participle by adding -ed to the base form.

For example:

 

If the verb ends in a consonant and -y, we change the -y to -i and added -ed. For example:

 

If a verb ends in -e we simply add -d, For example:

 

Here are some examples of regular verbs:

“Yesterday Jack studied all day.”

“Raul has accepted the job offer.”

“Have you finished yet?”

“We really liked the film we watched last night.”

 

There are three ways to pronounce -ed, depending on the last letter of the verb.

 

 

What are Irregular Verbs?

There are about 200 irregular verbs in English. We can divide these into four types:

1.                      Verbs which have the same base form, past simple and past participle

2.                      Verbs which have the same past simple and past participle

3.                      Verbs which have the same base form and past participle

4.                      Verbs which have a different base form, past simple and past participle

 

A good way to learn irregular verbs is to study them in these groups because as they are similar they’re easier to remember. Here are the most common irregular verbs in these groups.

 

 

 

For example:

“Our car cost a lot of money but it’s always breaking down.”

“Pasha hurt himself in a soccer match last weekend.”

“My parents have let me stay out late tonight.”

“They put on their jackets because it was very cold.”

 

 

For example:

“They had lunch at a Thai restaurant on Monday.”

 

“Have you heard the news about the train strike?”

“Tim has sent an email to all the suppliers.”

“Who won the match?” – “The Giants.”

 

 

For example:

“He came back home at 4 a.m. on Saturday.”

“Suzi has become the Managing Director.”

“The dog ran into the garden after Lee opened the door.”

“Has Mrs. O’Connor come back from lunch yet?”

 

 

For example:

Part One

The following is a list of Irregular Verbs in English:

Verb	Past Simple	Past Participle
arise	arose	arisen
babysit	babysat	babysat
be	was / were	been
beat	beat	beaten
become	became	become
bend	bent	bent
begin	began	begun
bet	bet	bet
bind	bound	bound
bite	bit	bitten
bleed	bled	bled
blow	blew	blown
break	broke	broken
breed	bred	bred
bring	brought	brought
broadcast	broadcast	broadcast
build	built	built
buy	bought	bought
catch	caught	caught
choose	chose	chosen
come	came	come
cost	cost	cost
cut	cut	cut
deal	dealt	dealt
dig	dug	dug
do	did	done
draw	drew	drawn
drink	drank	drunk
drive	drove	driven
eat	ate	eaten
fall	fell	fallen
feed	fed	fed
feel	felt	felt
fight	fought	fought
find	found	found
fly	flew	flown
forbid	forbade	forbidden
forget	forgot	forgotten
forgive	forgave	forgiven
freeze	froze	frozen
get	got	got (BrE) gotten (AmE)
give	gave	given
go	went	gone
grow	grew	grown
hang*	hung	hung
have	had	had
hear	heard	heard
hide	hid	hidden
hit	hit	hit
hold	held	held
hurt	hurt	hurt
keep	kept	kept
know	knew	known
lay	laid	laid
lead	led	led
leave	left	left
lend	lent	lent
let	let	let
lie **	lay	lain
light	lit	lit
lose	lost	lost
make	made	made
mean	meant	meant
meet	met	met
pay	paid	paid
put	put	put
quit	quit	quit
read ***	read	read
ride	rode	ridden
ring	rang	rung
rise	rose	risen
run	ran	run
say	said	said
see	saw	seen
sell	sold	sold
send	sent	sent
set	set	set
shake	shook	shaken
shine	shone	shone
shoot	shot	shot
show	showed	shown
shut	shut	shut
sing	sang	sung
sink	sank	sunk
sit	sat	sat
sleep	slept	slept
slide	slid	slid
speak	spoke	spoken
speed	sped	sped
spend	spent	spent
spin	spun	spun
spread	spread	spread
stand	stood	stood
steal	stole	stolen
stick	stuck	stuck
sting	stung	stung
strike	struck	struck
swear	swore	sworn
sweep	swept	swept
swim	swam	swum
swing	swung	swung
take	took	taken
teach	taught	taught
tear	tore	torn
tell	told	told
think	thought	thought
throw	threw	thrown
understand	understood	understood
wake	woke	woken
wear	wore	worn
win	won	won
withdraw	withdrew	withdrawn
write	wrote	written

* HANG - Hang has two different meanings. The first is "to attach (or hang) something in a high position" (e.g. on the wall or on a hook). In this case we use the above verbs Hang-Hung-Hung.
BUT when Hang means "to kill someone by putting a rope around someone's neck and leaving them in a high position without any support", we use different verbs: Hang-Hanged-hanged. This verb is typical of public executions in the past. (e.g. They hanged him in the main square.)
** LIE - Lie has two meanings. When it means "to put your body in a horizontal position" (normally on a bed) it uses the Lie-Lay-Lain verbs.
BUT it is regular Lie-Lied-Lied when it has the other meaning of "not to say the truth".
*** READ - Even though they are written the same, the pronunciation is different in the Past Tense and Past Participle

Part Two

The following verbs can be regular or irregular:

Verb	Past Simple	Past Participle
burn	burned OR burnt	burned OR burnt
dream	dreamed OR dreamt	dreamed OR dreamt
learn	learned OR learnt	learned OR learnt
smell	smelled OR smelt	smelled OR smelt

The second form (burnt, dreamt etc.) is more common in British English.

Part Three

Verbs that have the same form in Present, Past and Past Participle form:

Verb	Past Simple	Past Participle
bet	bet	bet
broadcast	broadcast	broadcast
cut	cut	cut
hit	hit	hit
hurt	hurt	hurt
let	let	let
put	put	put
quit	quit	quit
read	read	read
set	set	set
shut	shut	shut
spread	spread	spread

101 Irregular Past Tense Verbs in English

For example:

“The kids ate a lot of cakes at the party.”

“They drove to the airport and left their car there.”

“Has she taken her tickets yet?”

“I’ve written a letter of application for the manager’s job.”

 

 

Focus on learning a few irregular verbs at one time