Past simple tense in English
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This chapter will discuss the past simple tense in English. This tense is used for describing a completed action that took place in the past.
How the past simple tense is formed, depends on whether the sentence is:
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Structure: subject + conjugated verb + rest of the sentence
Structure: subject + negative auxiliary (did not) + infinitive verb + rest of the sentence.
The table below shows how the negative auxiliary is formed for every subject.
Subject | Negative auxiliary |
---|---|
I | did not |
You (singular) | did not |
He / she / it | did not |
We | did not |
You (plural) | did not |
They | did not |
Structure: Did + subject + infinitive verb + rest of the sentence + question mark
Use | Example |
---|---|
Temporary frequency |
|
Definite point in time |
|
Indefinite point in time |
|
You can recognize the use of the past simple tense when the sentence contains words as:
The English verbs can be split up into regular and irregular verbs. These are both conjugated differently.
The simple past of the English regular verbs are formed by adding '-ed' to the infinitive of the verb.
Rule: infinitive verb + ed
Subject | to watch | to walk |
---|---|---|
I | watched | walked |
You (singular) | watched | walked |
He / she / it | watched | walked |
We | watched | walked |
You (plural) | watched | walked |
They | watched | walked |
The table below shows the conjugation of the past simple of irregular verbs 'to swim', 'to feel', 'to have' and 'to be'.
Subject | to swim | to feel | to have | to be |
---|---|---|---|---|
I | swam | felt | had | was |
You | swam | felt | had | were |
He / she / it | swam | felt | had | was |
We | swam | felt | had | were |
You | swam | felt | had | were |
They | swam | felt | had | were |
Train your skills by doing the exercises below.
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**** Please contact me before booking a lesson, thanks! :-)*** Hello everyone, I'm Federica and I'm an italian and english teacher. Before being a teacher I've been a student infact I graduated in languages so I know very well how hard can be learning a new language. I'm interested in music, cinema, literature and I enjoy talking about several topics. I've been teaching since 2009 and in 2012 I've qualified as italian language teacher. I've experience with children and adults, with in company courses, with total beginners as well as with advanced. Also I've succesfully prepared a number of students for the most important english and italian certification (CELI, CILS, FIRST, PET, KET). Over the last years I've became specialized in one-to-one or small groups lessons because in this way I can create a tailored programme for each student. I follow a communicative approach and in my classes there's lot of room for speaking but I don't neglect grammar, listening and writing. I provide you with material, sometimes selfmade, other times taken from books, videos, or songs, but always useful to help you to immerse in the target language! At the end of every lesson I always assign homework in order to revise the things learnt. I define myself as a happy, positive and very patient person and I do my best to make the class a funny and relaxed moment. I look forward to meet you online!
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