SIMPLE PAST
Regular verbs
Affirmative form
+ -ED //
+ - D if final letter is E
worked / walked / listened / typed
/ deleted
I / You / He/ She / We/ They walked
!!! Pronunciation of final –ED
/t / after voiceless consonants
(/k/: walked; /p/: stopped; /f/: laughed …)
/d/ after voiced sounds (/n/:
listened; /v/: lived; /ə/: answered…)
/id/ after /t/ or /d/: wanted /
demanded / deleted
Irregular verbs
Affirmative form : see list
spoke / ate / swam…
I / You / He / She / We / They
spoke
Regular + Irregular verbs
Negative form
= did not (didn’t) + infinitive
I / You / He … didn’t travel / work / walk
I / You / He … didn’t speak / eat / drink
But not with the auxiliaries!!!
I / He / She / It was not // wasn’t
You / We / They were not // weren’t
I / You / He / We / They could not
// couldn’t
Regular + Irregular verbs
Interrogative form
= Did (I / you / He / …) +
infinitive…?
Did you buy a new car? Yes, I did / No, I didn’t
Did you see anything interesting?
Yes, I did / No, I didn’t.
Did they travel a lot? Yes, they did / No, they didn’t.
But not with the auxiliaries!!!
Were you here last night? Yes, I was. / No, I wasn’t.
Could you use that computer? Yes, I could. / No, I couldn’t.
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Simple past: 2 conditions
1: the action is finished /
completed in the past
2: we know exactly when the action
happened.
I saw the film last night.
She met her boyfriend when she was
at university.
They got married in 1998.
They bought their house 10 years
ago.
It happened during the war.
She worked for four years.
It happened on 5th May
1998.
I came back home at 2.30.
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… ago (2 days ago / three weeks ago / 10 years
ago / ages ago …)
last… (last Saturday / last week / last month /
last year …)
in… (in 2000 / in March 2013 / in April…)
at… (at 2 o’ clock / at 2.15 pm / …
)
on…
(on Monday 2nd June / … )
for… (=pendant) (for two years /
for 10 months / …)
during… (= pendant) (during the war / during the holiday…)
…
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PAST
CONTINUOUS / PAST PROGRESSIVE
was + …ing / were + …ing
wasn’t (was not) + …ing / weren’t (were not) + …ing
was + S + …ing…? / were + S + …ing…
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Used to denote an action going on
in the past (possibly for a certain time) until it stops, possibly being
interrupted by another action
She was reading an article ( = action going on / lasting a certain amount of time) when suddenly the phone rang (= sudden action which interrupts the longer one)
I was using the lawnmower when suddenly it stopped working.
Used to denote an action going on
while another one was also happening simultaneously.
I was working in the garden while she was cooking dinner.
NOTE THE DIFFERENCE TO AVOID
CONFUSION
What were you doing when the accident happened?
I was driving my car (when the accident happened)
What did you do when the accident happened?
I stopped driving, got out of the car, went to see if there were victims and called an ambulance…
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when
while
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