Practice

Put the verbs into the simple past:

1. Last year I (go) to England on holiday.
2. It (be) fantastic.
3. I (visit) lots of interesting places. I (be) with two friends of mine .
4. In the mornings we (walk) in the streets of London.
5. In the evenings we (go) to pubs.
6. The weather (be) strangely fine.
7. It (not / rain) a lot.
8. But we (see) some beautiful rainbows.
9. Where (spend / you) your last holiday?

Write the past forms of the irregular verbs.

Infinitive		Simple Past
1.	meet	.
2.	drive	.
3.	speak	.
4.	put	.
5.	write	.
6.	sing	.
7.	do	.
8.	sit	.
9.	stand	.
10.	run	.

Complete the table in simple past.

Affirmative	Negative	Interrogative
He wrote a book.
	He did not sing
		Was she pretty?

Put the sentences into simple past.

1. We move to a new house. →
2. They bring a sandwich. →
3. He doesn't do the homework. →
4. They sell cars. →
5. Does he visit his friends? →

Write sentences in simple past.

1. Janet / miss / the bus →
2. she / tidy / her room →
3. Nancy / watch / not / television→
4. she / read / a book →

Choose "Was“ or "Were“:

1. The teacher was were nice.
2. The students was were very clever.
3. But one student was were in trouble.
4. We was were sorry for him.
5. He was were nice though.

Irregular Verbs

Regular Verbs

If the verb is regular, the past simple ends  in ed


3.) SPELLING RULES FOR SIMPLE PAST TENSE OF REGULAR VERBS
a.) If the verb ends in a consonant, add –ed.
return - returned, help - helped, cook - cooked
b.) If the verb ends in –e, add –d.
live - lived, create - created, die - died
c.) In one-syllable words, if the verb ends in a consonant-vowel-consonant combination (CVC), double the
last consonant and add -ed.
hop - hopped, rub - rubbed
However, do not double one-syllable words ending in –w, -x, or –y.
bow - bowed, play - played, mix - mixed
d.) In words of two or more syllables that end in consonant-vowel-consonant combination, double the last
consonant only if the last syllable is stressed.
prefer - preferred (The last syllable is stressed.) visit - visited (The last syllable isn’t stressed)
e.) If the verb ends in a consonant, + y, change the -y to -i and –ed.
worry - worried, copy - copied
f.) If the verb ends in a vowel +y, add -ed. (Do not change the –y to –i.)
play - played, annoy - annoyed

Exception: pay - paid, lay - laid, say - said

Form of the Simple Past

To make the past simple tense, we use:

• past form only
  or
• auxiliary did + base form

Here you can see examples of the past form and base form for irregular verbs and regular verbs:

	V1 base	V2 past	V3 past participle
regular verb	work explode like	worked exploded liked	worked exploded liked	The past form for all regular verbs ends in -ed.
irregular verb	go see sing	went saw sang	gone seen sung	The past form for irregular verbs is variable. You need to learn it by heart.
			You do not need the past participle form to make the past simple tense. It is shown here for completeness only.

The structure for positive sentences in the past simple tense is:

subject	+	main verb
		past

The structure for negative sentences in the past simple tense is:

subject	+	auxiliary verb	+	not	+	main verb
		did				base

The structure for question sentences in the past simple tense is:

auxiliary verb	+	subject	+	main verb
did				base

The auxiliary verb did is not conjugated. It is the same for all persons (I did, you did, he did etc). And the base form and past form do not change. Look at these examples with the main verbs go andwork:

	subject	auxiliary verb		main verb
+	I			went	to school.
	You			worked	very hard.
-	She	did	not	go	with me.
	We	did	not	work	yesterday.
?	Did	you		go	to London?
	Did	they		work	at home?

Exception! The verb to be is different. We conjugate the verb to be (I was, you were, he/she/it was, we were, they were); and we do not use an auxiliary for negative and question sentences. To make a question, we exchange the subject and verb. Look at these examples:

	subject	main verb
+	I, he/she/it	was		here.
	You, we, they	were		in London.
-	I, he/she/it	was	not	there.
	You, we, they	were	not	happy.
?	Was	I, he/she/it		right?
	Were	you, we, they		late?

Simple Past

 

The Use of Simple Past 

• Action in the past taking place once, never or several times
  Example: He visited his parents every weekend.
  
  
• Actions in the past taking place one after the other
  Example: He came in, took off his coat and sat down.
  
  
• Action in the past taking place in the middle of another action
  Example: When I was having breakfast, the phone suddenly rang.
  
  
• If sentences type II (If I talked, …)
  Example: If I had a lot of money, I would share it with you.