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1, he, she, t
was.
were.
2,
We were together.
Was
1, he, she, t?
Were
."
was not.
1, you, he, she
wasn't.
were not.
You, we, they
weren't.
'/
2. weren't is the short form of ivere not. You can say either:
we weren't in Paris.
We weren't in Paris.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was an Austrian musician and composer. He lived from 1756 to 1791. He started composing
at the age of five years od and wrote more than 600 pieces of music. He was only 35 years od when he died.
The verbs "was, lived,started, wrote, died" are in the simple past tense.
Notice that:
Regular verbs:
The verbs "lived, started, died" are regular past forms. The rule is the following:
Verb + ed
i i ve
ved
start
started
ce
died
visit
visited
play
played
watch
watched
phone
phoned
marry
married
Irregular verbs:
The verbs "was, wrote" are irregular past forms. "Was" is the simple past of "to be"; "wrote" is the simple past of
"write".
There is no rule for these verbs. You should learn them by heart.
The infinitive
be
was/were
write
wrote
1
come
carne
do
did
meet
met
speak
spoke
As you can see we can not predict the simple past forms of these verbs. They are irregular. You should leam them by
heart.
The forms of the simple past:
The Affirmative form of the simple past:
played.
did.
Examples:
i
play?
Did
write
|do?
Examples:
3
piay
do
'-"
fO
\'
W'
Remember:
didn't is the short form of did not. You can say either:
10
I-
was
playing.
Yesterday evening I was watching a film, when someone knocked on the door.
'i
1, he, she, it
Playing?
Examples:
-5 -
And w h a t was y o u r m o t h e r d o i n g 7
-'"
The negative f o r m :
1, he, she, it
was not/wasn't
playing.
Examples:
H
9
( 0
I staried doing
I was doing
mmm
I finished doin
No
Past
We use the past continuous t o say t h a t somebody was in the middie of doing something at a
certain time in the past.
Example:
"This time yesterday, I was doing my h o m e w o r k . "
We use the past continuous to say t h a t something happened in the middie of something else:
Example:
"Bob burnt his hand w h e n he was cooking dinner yesterday"
-4 -
tt
Affirmative
Negative
Interrogative
1 had worked.
had 1 worked?
You had worked. You had not worked. had you worked?
NOTE:
I had w o r k e d = I'd w o r k e d
FRcSENT
FRRE
Use the past perfect tense t o show an action that was completed prior t o another action that took
place in t h e past.
Examples:
-i
President Lincoln had attended the theater before his assassination in 1S65.
_ y
S +had been
verb
+ing
Affirmative
Negative
Interrogative
Examples:
"1
You had been waiting there for more than two hours when she finally arrived.
2.
Had you been waiting there for more than two hours when she finally arrived?
3 o
You had not been waiting there for more than two hours when she finally arrive.
PAST
PRESENT
X I
FRRE
1. We use the past perfect continuous to show that something started in the past and continued up until another action
stopped it.
Example:
H
2. We use the past perfect continuous to show that something started in the past and continued up until anothertime n
the past. In this case we use expressions of duration such as:
3
for an hour
s o
forthree years
Example:
7
I had been living n that small town for three years before I moved to New York.
3. We use the Past Perfect Continuous before another action in the past to show cause and effect.
Example:
3