UNIVERSIDAD CENTRAL DEL ECUADOR

SIMPLE PAST

NAME(S): _________________________________________ DATE:_______________

THE SIMPLE PAST TENSE MEANING AND STRUCTURE

The Simple Past Tense is used to express actions that happened and finished in a SPECIFIC TIME IN THE PAST. They don’t
continue in the present. We often use words such as "yesterday" or phrases such as "last week" or "2 months ago" or as well time
expressions such us “in 2003” or dates “on July 2nd, 2000” to indicate when something happened in the past.

o SIMPLE PAST TENSE OF BE

 USE
The past tense of "to be" is used to join a subject with a word or words that tell something about the subject (General Information –
Description – Relationship)

 FORM
Affirmative Statements.
Example: I was a student. / The baby was tired. / She was fat. / You were sick. / It was a fast car. / We were wet.

Negative Statements.
Example: I wasn't hungry. / Andy wasn't tall. / The furniture wasn't new. / The living room was not neat. / We weren't late.

Yes / No Questions.
Example: Was I early? / Was the camera expensive? / Were Dan and Lynn at the party? / Were you busy yesterday?

Information Questions.
Example: Where was I early /What was your last name? / Who was he? / How were they? Who was busy yesterday?

- NOTICE. the question to the SUBJECT is ALWAYS conjugated in 3rd SINGULAR PERSON.

Exercise. Complete the conversations with the Past Tense of BE

1. A: ______________ you out of the city last week? 3. A: So, ___________ your vacation OK?
B: No, I _____________. B: Well, it ___________ good because the food
A: So, Where __________you? ___________ terrible.
B: I _____________ at home all the time. A: I’m sorry to hear that.
B: Yeah…. And the people _________ friendly, but the
hotel ____________ good.
2. A: How ___________ the food?
B: There ___________ a lot of seafood and I loved it. 4. A: What ________ your best friend’s name in high
A: __________ it expensive? school?
B: No, it __________ expensive at all. B: Her name __________ Cristine.
A: And what _______ she like?
B: She __________ really tall and beautiful.

Exercise. Make up questions to the BOLDED part of the sentence.

5. He was really nice at me when we were children. _____________________________________________________

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6. They were my classmates at the University. _____________________________________________________

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7. Your friends were originally from Peru. _____________________________________________________

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8. There were 2 pools in the hotel. _____________________________________________________

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9. I was at home with my sister. _____________________________________________________

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10. She was tired because she studied all night. _____________________________________________________
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 o SIMPLE PAST TENSE OF ACTION VERBS (Verb conjugation and spelling)

 USE
The Simple Past tense uses 2 groups of verbs to represent actions in the Past and they are REGULAR and IRREGULAR verbs.

SPELLING RULES

 REGULAR VERBS: They are formed by adding –ed to the base form of the verb (verb + ed = simple past):

For regular verbs that end:

In the vowel -e, add -d. Example: Bake – Baked / Free - Freed / Hope – Hoped
In a vowel other than “e”, add -ed. Example: Ski – skied / Echo – echoed
In a vowel + y, add -ed. Example: Play – played / Decay – decayed / Enjoy – enjoyed
In a consonant + y, change the -y to -i and add -ed. Example: Cry – cried / Magnify – magnified / Try - tried
In consonant, vowel and consonant, double the final consonant before adding -ed.
Example: Dam – Dammed / Beg – Begged / Stop - Stopped
NOTICE. For a regular verb with more than one syllable, the final consonant is doubled only when the syllable stress is on the final syllable.
Example:
DeFER Deferred Not: deferred ORbit Orbited Not: orbitted
OFfer Offered Not: offerred OMIT Omitted Not: omited
ReGRET Regretted Not: regreted VIsit Visited Not: visitted
ComPEL Compelled Not: compeled ConSIder Considered Not: considerred

 IRREGULAR VERBS: Irregular verbs form the past tense by a change (or not) in spelling or pronunciation
Example:
Infinitive Simple Past Infinitive Simple Past
Buy bought Go went
Do did Say said
Fly flew Read read
Forget forgot Cut cut
Light lit Quit quit

 FORM

Affirmative Statements. Form the Simple Past Tense of an action by using either a Regular or Irregular form of the action
Example: I visited my friends yesterday (REGULAR) She made a nice dinner for us (IRREGULAR)

Negative Statements. You have to use DIDN’T and the Base form of the action.
Example: I didn’t visit my friends yesterday (REGULAR) She didn’t make a nice dinner for us (IRREGULAR)

Yes / No Questions. Use DID before the Subject and the base form of the action.
Example: Did you visit your friends yesterday? (REGULAR) Did she make a nice dinner for us? (IRREGULAR)

Information Questions. Use the same structure of a YES / NO question and an INFORMATION WORD.

Information Word Auxiliary Subject Verb Complement Answer

What Did You Play On your computer? I played video games

Notice how the information words provide a certain type of information

 Where did you have your book?
 When did she return?
 What time did they start class?
 Why did you study?
 What did he eat?
 Who did you call?
 Who did she go to the cinema with?
 How long did she sleep?
 How often did they visit you?
It was on the table (location)
She returned yesterday (general time)
They started class at 7:00 am (specific time)
I studied because I wanted to be an Engineer(reason)
He ate pizza(things)
I called my girlfriend(people)
She went with my brother(company)
She slept for 10hours(duration)
They usually visited me (frequency)

When you make the question to the SUBJECT of the sentence, notice that the action is always conjugated in 3 rd person.
 Who prepared the dinner? They did*
 What moved in the window? My cat did*
 Who understood the English class? He did*
Exercise. Write affirmative sentences in simple past.
1. you / a question / ask / in class _____________________________________________________
2. the dog / bark / at the cat _____________________________________________________
3. they / us / call / yesterday _____________________________________________________
4. we / a reindeer / see / on our vacation _____________________________________________________
5. she / the ball / catch _____________________________________________________

Exercise. Rewrite the sentences negatively.

6. You drove really fast before coming here. _____________________________________________________
7. Albert played squash in high school. _____________________________________________________
8. He tested our English in class. _____________________________________________________
9. Fiona flew to Paris last semester. _____________________________________________________
10. They did aerobics two days ago. _____________________________________________________

Exercise. Write Yes/No questions in simple past.

11. she / home / last night / walk
12. you / in the morning / work / yesterday
13. you / a song / sing / at the party
14. he / fall /from the chair / last week
15. we / break / the chair / three hours ago
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Exercise. Ask for the bolded part of the sentence.

16. The policeman arrested the thief
17. She watched the match with Mary last night.
18. She asked her friend because she did not know
19. Cindy had a dog.
20. I brought a nice bottle of wine.
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Exercise. Put the verbs into the correct form (simple past).
1. Last year, I (spend) ________________my holiday in Ireland.
2. (be / it)__________________a great play?
3. Who (travel / they) _______________around by car with?
4. (go / she) ____________________to a pub yesterday?
5. I (not / be) ____________________ fat when I was in high school.
6. What time (be / he) _______________________at the meeting today in the morning?
7. It (not / rain) _____________________a lot.
8. Who (see) _______________________some beautiful rainbows?
9. Where (spend / you) ________________________your last holiday?
10. Who (be) ___________________ at the meeting?