PAST TENSE

By Beremix Baique

​The past tense in English can be used to:

• to talk about the past

• to talk about hypotheses (when we imagine something)

• for politeness.

​The simple past tense, sometimes called the preterite, is used to talk about a completed action in a time before now. The simple past is the basic form of past tense in English. The time of the action can be in the recent past or the distant past and action duration is not important.

By Beremix Baique

There are four past tense forms in English:​

​Today we´ll learn

about

​

SIMPLE PAST​

By Beremix Baique

The simple past is a verb tense that is used to talk about things that happened or existed before now

​For regular verbs, add -ed to the root form of the verb (or just -d if the root form already ends in an e):

Play→Played Type→Typed Listen→Listened Push→Pushed Love→Loved

By Beremix Baique

For irregular verbs, things get more complicated. The simple past tense of some irregular verbs looks exactly like the root form:​

Put→Put Cut→Cut Set→Set Cost→Cost Hit→Hit

For other irregular verbs, including the verb to be, the simple past forms are more erratic:

See→Saw Build→Built Go→Went Do→Did Rise→Rose Am/Is/Are→Was/Were​

By Beremix Baique

​Fortunately, there is a formula for making simple past verbs negative, and it’s the same for both regular and irregular verbs (except for the verb to be). The formula is did not + [root form of verb]. You can also use the contraction didn’t instead of did not.

How to Make the Simple Past Negative

Examples

• We didnt argue this morning

• He did not ask any question

• She did not play with the kids

By Beremix Baique

The formula for asking a question in the simple past tense is did + [subject] + [root form of verb].

How to Ask a Question

Examples

• Did you do your homework?

• Did he ask questions?

• Didi she play with the kids

By Beremix Baique

Fill in the following questions with the correct answer:​

LET´S PRACTISE!

• I ------ an apple this morning. (eat)

• They ----- questions to the teacher. (ask)

• We ------ with the kids in the park (play)

• They ---- today. (not argue)