PAST SIMPLE
We use the past simple
to talk about things we did in the past. With the simple
past we express past actions that took place once or repeatedly, happened
one after the other, or interrupted an action that was already taking place. Signal
words: yesterday, two years ago, in 1990, the other day, last summer…
Examples:
We went to
Canada last month.
She came to school, introduced herself, and began to talk about her country.
While we
were playing football, the school bell suddenly rang.
If I spoke Chinese, I would like to go
on holiday to China.
The
construction of the simple past is the same for all forms. We only
differentiate between regular and irregular verbs.
To change a regular verb into its past
tense form, we normally add –ED to the end of the verb. Examples: play – played, watch – watched, want – wanted
If a verb ends in an E we just add the D
to the end. Examples: live- lived, dance- danced, smile- smiled
In one syllable verbs and two syllable
verbs ending in a Consonant + Stressed
Vowel + Consonant, we double the final consonant and add ED. Examples: stop- stopped,
admit- admitted, plan- planned, rip- ripped, commit- committed, prefer-
preferred…
If a two-syllable verb ends in a
Consonant + Vowel + Consonant, we DO NOT double the final consonant
when the stress is on the FIRST syllable. Examples: happen- happened,
enter- entered, suffer- suffered, offer- offered…
We DO NOT double the final consonant
when the word ends in W, X or Y or when the final syllable is not
stressed. Examples: fix- fixed, enjoy- enjoyed, snow- snowed…
Verbs ending in a Consonant + Vowel + L,
we normally double the final L and add ED. Note: In the United States (US)
they DO NOT double the L when the accent is on the first syllable. Examples: travel- travelled (UK), traveled (US),
marvel- marveled
Verbs ending in a consonant + Y replace y by an i and
add ed. Examples: hurry- hurried, study- studied, carry- carried.
Remember: Not all words that end in -ED are verbs in
the past tense. Sometimes they are Past Participles or they could even be
Adjectives ending in -ED.
The pronunciation of ED sometimes causes problems
for non-native speakers because it can be pronounced in three different ways:
as / id /, as / t / or as / d /
An easy way to remember how to pronounce ED words
The most important thing to remember is that
there are two main divisions:
In time you will learn when to pronounce the
ED as /t/ or /d/.
Irregular verbs have a
special form (second column of table of irregular verb). There is not any
rule to form irregular verbs so we have to memorize them. Examples: eat – ate,
write – wrote, go – went
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In negative sentences and questions, the
verb remains in the infinitive, and only the auxiliary verb do is put in
the past tense (= did).
For the negative, don’t change the main verb.
Use ‘didn’t’ (did not) instead. Examples: play – didn’t play, eat – didn’t
eat
For the interrogative
we use the formula Did + Subject + Infinitive. We can also use questions words
before did to ask for more information. Examples: Did you go out yesterday?
Yes, I did. Where did you go? I went to a nightclub.
Can you write some sentences using the simple past? Don't forget write some of them in the negative and interrogative form.
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