The Past Simple Tense

Past simple tense (p. 181-182)

1.      Use the past simple to talk about an event or events happening in the past.

Ex:

It is 5:30 now.

I finished my homework at 5:00.

I finished it 30 minutes ago.

                                        5:00                5:30

--------------------------------------------------------------l-----------------------------l-------------à

                                 I finished my homework       

                                       (past)                (now)

Before advancing, study this example:

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was an Austrian musician and composer. He lived from 1756 to 1791. He started composing at the age of five and wrote more than 600 pieces of music. He was only 35 years old when he died. Lived/ started/ wrote/ was/ died are all past simple.

        

Forms
	Verb (past simple)		Time marker (of the past)
John                 finished               his homework          7 minutes ago.    Lynn and Ben             were                 in America             last year.       Tim                didn’t go to             his English class         yesterday afternoon.       Sam                  wrote                a letter to May          this morning.

In the examples above, the verbs and time markers correspond to the rules of the past simple tense. The verbs are in their past tense forms and the time markers are of the past.

2.      Verbs and the past simple

There are two kinds of verbs in the past simple – regular and irregular.

Regular verbs usually ends in – ed.

Rules for –ed ending:

For most regular verbs, add – ed.	accept à accepted   bother à bothered   cook à cooked allow à allowed     call à called       help à helped
For verbs ending in – e, add only –d.	dance à danced   believe à believed   blame à blamed hate à hated      realize à realized    smoke à smoked
For one-syllable verbs ending in one vowel + one consonant, double the final consonant + -ed.	drum à drummed   fan à fanned      rip à ripped grab à grabbed     nod à nodded     stop à stopped
For two-syllable verbs which end in one stressed vowel + one consonant, double the final consonant + ed.	prefer à preferred   refer à referred    regret à regretted
For two-syllable verbs which end in one unstressed vowel + one consonant, add –ed.	wonder à wondered   thunder à thundered
For verbs ending in consonant + y, change the y to I and then add – ed.	apply à applied     cry à cried       comply à complied copy à copied      envy à envied     fry à fried
For verbs ending in vowel (a, e, o) + y, add only –ed.	delay à delayed    display à displayed  play à played stay à stayed       pray à prayed      obey à obeyed
For verbs ending in –I, add only –ed.	ski à skied         taxi à taxied

A short list of Irregular verbs (for a longer list, please click me)

Root verb	Simple past	Root verb	Simple past
beat à beat sing à sang eat à ate		hurt à hurt hang à hung spend à spent

Verbs to be:

Root verb	Simple past
is à was am à was are à were

3.      time markers and the past simple

Here is a list of some commonly seen past-time expressions

yesterday or yesterday + ____	yesterday   yesterday evening   yesterday morning   yesterday afternoon the day before yesterday   two days before yesterday
last + _____	last week   last month   last Tuesday   last summer   last weekend last year    last Monday and Tuesday
____ + ago	a year ago   three months ago   five weeks ago   a decade ago a millennium ago   five hundred years ago

Others:

this morning   at that time   then   in 1998

4.      Statements

To talk about many kinds of past events:

Short, quickly finished actions and happenings	-         Last week May had a bad fall while ice-skating and broke her leg. -         Not long ago John took my pen without telling me.
Longer situations	-  Jane spent much of her childhood at a boarding school in Texas.
Repeated events	-  While in college, Kathy fell in love four times before she married Ben.

5.      Negative statements and questions

In questions and negatives we use did/didn’t + base verb (look/ eat etc.):

I she they

enjoyed saw went

↓

did

you she they

enjoy? see? go?

↓

I she they

didn’t

enjoy see go

Examples:

1.      A: Did you go out last night?

B: Yes, I went to the cinema, but I didn’t enjoy the film much.

2.      ‘When did Mr. Thomas die?’ ‘About ten years ago.’

3.      They didn’t invite her to the party, so she didn’t go.

4.      ‘Did you have time to write the letter?’ ‘No, I didn’t.’

In the following examples, do is the main verb in the sentence (did…do/ didn’t do):

5.      What did you do at the weekend?

6.      I didn’t do anything.

I/ he/ she/ it   was/ wasn’t

we/ you/ they   were/weren’t

↓

was   I/ he/ she/ it?

were   we/ you/ they?

Ex:

1.      Was the weather good when you were on holiday?

2.      They weren’t able to come because they were too busy.

3.      Did you go out last night or were you too tired?

4.      Sam didn’t do his homework last night.

* Wh- questions and simple tenses (present, past and future simple) (Click me!)

Past Simple Tense exercises:
Past simple tense (1) statement .doc answer keys: Past simple tense (1) statement ans.doc
Past simple tense (2) Cloze .doc answer keys: Past simple tense (2) Cloze ans.doc
Past simple tense (3) Cloze .doc answer keys: Past simple tense (3) Cloze ans.doc
Past simple tense (4) Rewrite .doc answer keys: Past simple tense (4) Rewrite ans.doc
Past simple tense (5) Questions .doc answer keys: Past simple tense (5) Questions .doc
Past simple tense (6) Questions .doc answer keys: Past simple tense (6) Questions .doc
Past Simple Tense on-line exercises:

My English Pages (Past simple)
Ego 4 U (Past simple) (The links are at the bottom of the page)
Agenda (Past simple)
Grammar Bank (Past simple)