The simple past tense

The simple past tense

Meaning & Use

• When do we use the Simple Past tense?
• We use the Simple Past to express the idea that an action started and finished at a specific time in the past.
• What are some common time expressions used with the past tense?

• yesterday

• last month

• last year

• last week

• ago

• In 1980

Examples:

• I saw Maria yesterday.
• Last Friday, the students took their spelling and vocabulary tests.
• They got married two years ago.

• These actions
• are over, finished!

How do we form the simple past tense . . .?

• English has two types of verbs in the past tense:

• taught
• walked
• studied
• gave
• became
• cried
• lived
• did

• regular

• regular

• regular

• regular

• irregular

• irregular

• irregular

• irregular

• Look at the following list of past tense verbs…
• which verbs are regular, and which are irregular?

• Regular verbs
• Irregular verbs

Regular verbs are verbs that ….

• Simple Form Past Tense
• Walk
• Study
• Cry
• Live

• walk

• ed

• studi

• ed

• cri

• ed

• liv

• ed

• …end with –ed

Irregular verbs are verbs that . . . .

• …DON’T end with –ed

• some irregular verbs
• Have a vowel change in the past tense:

• Examples

• Simple Form Past Tense
• become became
• give gave
• drive drove
• forget forgot

other irregular verbs Have a different kind of change:

• Simple Past
• teach taught
• bring brought
• Leave left
• Hear heard
• Buy bought

• Examples:

And some irregular verbs don’t change at all . . .

• Simple Past
• hit hit
• put put
• set set
• The children set the table every Sunday.
• The children set the table last night.

• examples:

For regular verbs, simply use the –ed form of the verb in a positive sentence.

• When I was a child, I ___________ the piano. (play)
• Donna ______________ Paris. (visit)

• played

• visited

• **Be careful with
• spelling changes!

For irregular verbs, use the correct past tense form in positive sentences. (We use the same form with different subjects .)

• Last week, I ___________ you a letter. (send)
• The students __________an English exam. (have) They _______ a great job! (do)

• Unfortunately, these forms must be memorized!

• sent

• had

• did

For negative sentences, USE

• I went to work yesterday.
• I didn’t go to work yesterday.

• DiD Not

• or

• didn't

• +

• verb,
• base
• Form
• (Infinitive)

Exception = VERB BE!

• The verb be is special.
• Never use DID NOT or DIDN’T with the verb BE. Instead, just use:

• Was

• or

• were

• +

• not

For Yes/No questions, USE

• Did you go to work yesterday?
• Did you come yesterday?

• DiD

• +

• verb,
• base
• Form
• (Infinitive)

• subject

• +

Put the verbs (between brackets) into the correct form (simple past).

• Last year, I (spend) ________my holiday in Ireland. It (be) ________great. I (travel)___________ around the city by car with two friends and we (visit) ________lots of interesting places. In the evenings, we usually (go)_______ to a café.
• We (be) ________very lucky with the weather. It (not / rain)___________ a lot. We(see) ________some beautiful rainbows.
• I (have) ______ an amazing holiday!

• spent

• travelled

• was

• visited

• went

• had

• were

• didn’t rain

• saw