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

Fill in the Blanks

I

(study) the English irregular verbs yesterday.

Fill in the Blanks

I

(play) football with my younger brother last week.

Fill in the Blanks

A rabbit

(hop) past my garden fence yesterday morning.

Fill in the Blanks

The cleaning lady

(mop) the floors this morning.

Fill in the Blanks

I

(hope) to get a good mark in English last year, but I didn't. So, this year I'm determined to study harder.

Fill in the Blanks

My family

(travel) to Greece last summer.

AFFIRMATIVE: IRREGULAR VERBS

❖

Irregular verbs don’t have a fixed pattern.

‼

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

Write the past:

Yesterday I

(go) to the Cicero Library with my siblings.

Match

Match the following:

• Do

• Fall

• Feel

• Win

• Send

Did

Fell

Felt

Won

Sent

• Did

• Fell

• Felt

• Won

• Sent

Fill in the Blanks

Past tense:

Last week, Ms. Meza

(send) us a message about our project.

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.

Fill in the Blanks

1.Tim ……………… at half past seven. (get up)

Fill in the Blanks

2.Gina ……………… French last year (study)

Fill in the Blanks

3.Carol ……………… a shower yesterday. (have)

Fill in the Blanks

4.The boys ……………… football (play) in the garden last Sunday.

Fill in the Blanks

5. It ……………… cold last winter. (be)

Fill in the Blanks

6.The bus ……………… late this morning, so I was late for my Romanian class. (arrive)

Fill in the Blanks

7. Dad ……………….. a fantastic laptop on my last birthday. (buy)

Fill in the Blanks

8. John …………………. his parents last night after he safely arrived in Paris. (phone)

Fill in the Blanks

9.Terry ………………… home last week to visit his cousins. (come)

Fill in the Blanks

10. We

(be) very happy when we received our tablets from school. Now our lessons are more interactive and interesting.

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

Fill in the Blanks

Tom

(not/understand) the Math lesson yesterday.

Fill in the Blanks

I

(not see) you this morning. That's why I didn't say "hello".

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.

Fill in the Blanks

you see your friends at school today?

Fill in the Blanks

Carol …………… an email to Mary.

Fill in the Blanks

Pam ……………… her teeth three times yesterday.

Fill in the Blanks

I …………… the maths exam! I’m disappointed.

Fill in the Blanks

I

an interesting documentary on Netflix last week.