Simple Past Tense
How do we form the simple past tense?
English has two types of
verbs in the past:
-regular
-irregular
Regular Verbs
• Most verbs ( + ed)
walk→walked
play →played
• Verbs ending in e (+d)
live →lived
use →used
• Verbs ending in a consonant + y
(-y + ied)
(consonant: p,
t, r, etc)
cry →cried
carry →carried
• Short verbs ending in a vowel + a
consonant
(vowel: a, e, i, o,
u)
(double the consonant + y)
stop →stopped shop →shopped
Let’s read the following list of past tense
verbs….. Which are regular and which are
irregular?
 walked
 studied
 taught
 gave
 became
 cried
 lived
 did
regular
regular
irregular
irregular
irregular
regular
regular
irregular
Irregular Verbs)
 No change
cost →cost
put →put
 Change the vowel or the
consonant
come →came ring →rang
make →made sit →sat
 Change the whole word
buy →bought do →did
Other irregular verbs have a different kind of
change…..you need to memorize these!
teach taught
bring brought
leave left
hear heard
buy bought
Usage
1. Use the Past Simple to express an action that
started and finished at a specific time in the past..
Examples:
 I saw a movie yesterday.
 Last year, I traveled to Japan.
 Did you have dinner last night?
 She washed her car two hours ago.
Time Expressions
FORM
I
You
He
She
It
We
You
They
worked in the garden yesterday.
danced at the party last night.
carried the heavy box.
bought new shoes.
Questions
We add “Did” before the subject
and put a “ ? ” at the end to form
question.
 Did you have breakfast this morning?
 Did you wash the dishes last night?
 Did you bring the umbrella?
Negative Form
 Negatives in the Simple Past are formed by adding didn't or did
not before the simple form of the verb.
Subject
did
not
 The girl didn’t come to school yesterday.
 The parents didn’t work on Sunday.
 The baby didn’t drink milk in the morning.
V1
Rest of the
sentence
NEGATIVE FORM
I
You
He
She
It
We
You
They
didn’t play tennis last weekend.
didn’t clean the windows.
didn’t go the dentist.
Negative Sentences
We add “did not” before the main verb to
form negative sentence. (did not = didn’t)



I did not see Sandy this morning.
John did not go to church last Sunday.
David did not watch TV last night.
Questions
 Yes / No Question
Did
Subject
 Did
Nevo
Rest of the
sentence
V1
see
?
his grandparents yesterday?
 Wh – Non – Subject Question
Wh - word
 Where
did
did
V1
Subject
you
spend
Rest of the
sentence
your holidays?
 Wh – Subject Question
Who / What
V2
Rest of the
sentence
 Who wrote this beautiful poem?
?
?