Past Simple + Theory

Past Simple

regular and irregular verbs

HOW TO FORM THE PAST SIMPLE

To form the past simple we have to distinguish:

•regular verbs: dance, play, walk,…

•irregular verbs: eat, swim, drive,…

They are only different in the affirmative form.

I typed He swam They had

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AFFIRMATIVE: IRREGULAR VERBS

❖

Irregular verbs don’t have a fixed pattern.

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You must learn irregular verbs by heart.

(look at the list at the end of the book)

I run → I ran

He drives → He drove

They fly → They flew

•Be careful: most of the verbs we often use are irregular.

Multiple Choice

Select the past tense:

Yesterday I (eat) some apples and watermelon.

• eated

• eat

• ate

• none

Match

Match the following to past tense:

• run

• write

• say

• give

• read

ran

wrote

said

gave

read

• ran

• wrote

• said

• gave

• read

Fill in the Blanks

Match

Match the following:

• Do

• Fall

• Feel

• Win

• Send

Did

Fell

Felt

Won

Sent

• Did

• Fell

• Felt

• Won

• Sent

Fill in the Blanks

Multiple Choice

Past Tense:

Last month, my friend (forget) to send me her birthday party invitation.

• forget

• forgeted

• forgot

• none

Multiple Choice

Past Tense:

Last night, my dog (sleep) for 10 hours.

• sleeped

• slept

• sleeps

• none

Multiple Choice

Past Tense:

I (leave) my notebook on my desk!

• leaved

• leave

• left

• none

Open Ended

Where did you go last weekend? (Use the past tense)

Open Ended

What did you eat yesterday (Use the past tense)

Open Ended

How many hours did you sleep yesterday? (Use the past tense)

Match

Match the following

• keep

• know

• cut

• read

kept

knew

cut

read

• kept

• knew

• cut

• read

USES OF THE PAST SIMPLE

•We use the past simple to talk about completed actions in
the past

e.g. I wrote an email to her yesterday.

•Past actions which happened immediately one after the
other

e.g. Peter Pan landed on the window sill, peered inside and
saw a beautiful young girl.

USES OF THE PAST SIMPLE (2)

•We use the past simple to talk about an action which
happened at a definite past time. The action was
completed in the past.

e.g. Shakespeare wrote a lot of plays.

(Shakespeare is now dead; he won't write again.)

•Past habit or state

e.g. When George was a school boy, he went to school on
foot.

TIME EXPRESSIONS

★ yesterday
★ last week/ month/year
★ when
★ two years ago
★ How long ago…?
★ then
★ in 2003

Poll

The past simple tense is:

• easy to use.

• difficult to understand.

• quite hard to use.

• very simple for me.

NEGATIVE FORM

•In the negative form there is no difference between regular and irregular verbs.

•We need an auxiliary verb: DID + not

did not = didn’t

•After didn’t we add the infinitive of the verb

He studied → He didn’t study

I went → He didn’t go

INTERROGATIVE FORM and SHORT ANSWERS

In the interrogative form we put DID in front of the
subject.

•After the subject we use the infinitive.

•For short answer we use S+ DID or DIDN’T

Did you buy the book?

Yes, I did/ No, I didn’t.

Did the children study?

Yes, they did/ No, they didn’t.