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Simple Past Tense PDF

The document discusses the simple past tense in English. It is used to talk about completed actions in the past. Regular verbs form the simple past by adding "-ed" to the base verb. There are some spelling rules for regular verbs ending in certain letters. Some common irregular verbs have unique past tense forms that do not follow a predictable pattern. The simple past of auxiliary verbs "be", "have", and "do" also have set forms. Affirmative, negative and interrogative sentences are constructed differently in the simple past.

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643 views9 pages

Simple Past Tense PDF

The document discusses the simple past tense in English. It is used to talk about completed actions in the past. Regular verbs form the simple past by adding "-ed" to the base verb. There are some spelling rules for regular verbs ending in certain letters. Some common irregular verbs have unique past tense forms that do not follow a predictable pattern. The simple past of auxiliary verbs "be", "have", and "do" also have set forms. Affirmative, negative and interrogative sentences are constructed differently in the simple past.

Uploaded by

Anthony Contreras
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Simple Past Tense

The simple past tense, sometimes called the preterite, is used to talk about a completed action in a time
before now. The simple past is the basic form of past tense in English. The time of the action can be in the
recent past or the distant past and action duration is not important.

 John Cabot sailed to America in 1498.


 My father died last year.
 He lived in Fiji in 1976.
 We crossed the Channel yesterday.

You always use the simple past when you say when something happened, so it is associated with certain past
time expressions

 frequency: often, sometimes, always


I sometimes walked home at lunchtime.
I often brought my lunch to school.
 a definite point in time: last week, when I was a child, yesterday, six weeks ago
We saw a good film last week.
Yesterday, I arrived in Geneva.
She finished her work at seven o'clock
I went to the theatre last night
 an indefinite point in time: the other day, ages ago, a long time ago
People lived in caves a long time ago.
She played the piano when she was a child.

Note: the word ago is a useful way of expressing the distance into the past. It is placed after the period of
time: a week ago, three years ago, a minute ago.

Be Careful: The simple past in English may look like a tense in your own language, but the meaning may be
different.
Regular Verbs
FORMING THE SIMPLE PAST TENSE REGULAR
VERBS
The simple past is formed by adding –ed to the base form of the verb (the infinitive without to).

Examples

Base form +ed= simple past

Walk Walked

Push Pushed

Greet Greeted

Watch Watched

In English, the simple past of regular verbs is extremely easy. It is the same for all persons.
Here are example sentences of the simple past with the verb WORK.

Examples:

Singular Plural
1st per I Worked yesterday We worked yesterday
2nd per You Worked yesterday They worked yesterday
3rd per He, She, It Worked yesterday They worked yesterday
IRREGULARITIES
There are several irregularities regarding orthography (spelling) for the simple past ending of
regular verbs. Similarly, there are different ways to pronounce this ending. See the lesson on
pronunciation of the Simple Past –ed ending to learn more.

ENDING IN THE VOWEL -E


For regular verbs ending in the vowel -e, add –d.

Base form Simple Past


Hate Hated
Seize Seized
Hope Hoped
Assume Assumed
Tie Tied
Free Freed

END IN A VOWEL OTHER THAN -E


For the very few English verbs that end in a vowel other than -e, add –ed. Exceptions to this are
“do” and “go” because they are irregular verbs.

Base Form Simple Past


Ski Skied
Echo Echoed

ENDING IN A VOWEL+Y
For regular verbs that end in a vowel+y, add –ed.

Base form Simple past


Play Played
Decay Decayed
Survey Surveyed
Enjoy Enjoyed

ENDING IN A CONSONANT+Y
For regular verbs that end in a consonant+y, change the –y to –i and add –ed.

Base form Simple Past


Try Tried
Fry Fried
Apply Applied
Marry Married

ENDING IN OTHER CONSONANTS


Verbs that end in other consonants, when the stress is on the last syllable, or it is a one-
syllable verb, double the consonant

Base form Simple past


Stop Stopped
Prefer (prefér) Preferred

Verbs that end in other consonants, when the stress is on the second to last syllable, do not
double the consonant

Base form Simple past


Cancel (cáncel) Canceled
Travel (trável) Traveled
Patterns of simple past tense
Affirmative

Subject + verb + ed

I skipped.

Negative

Subject + did not + infinitive without to

They didn't go.

Interrogative

Did + subject + infinitive without to

Did she arrive?

Interrogative negative

Did not + subject + infinitive without to

Didn't you play?


Example: To Walk

Affirmative Negative Interrogative

I walked I didn't walk Did I walk?

You walked You didn't walk Did you walk?

He walked He didn't walk Did he walk?

We walked We didn't walk Did we walk?

They walked They didn't walk Did they walk?

Simple past tense of to be, to have, to do


Subject Verb

Be Have Do

I was had did

You were had did

He/She/It was had did

We were had did


Subject Verb

You were had did

They were had did


Notes on affirmative, negative, & interrogative forms

AFFIRMATIVE
The affirmative of the simple past tense is simple.

 I was in Japan last year


 She had a headache yesterday.
 We did our homework last night.

NEGATIVE AND INTERROGATIVE


For the negative and interrogative simple past form of "do" as an ordinary verb, use the auxiliary "do", e.g.
We didn't do our homework last night.
The negative of "have" in the simple past is usually formed using the auxiliary "do", but sometimes by simply
adding not or the contraction "n't".

The interrogative form of "have" in the simple past normally uses the auxiliary "do".

Examples

 They weren't in Rio last summer.


 We didn't have any money.
 We didn't have time to visit the Eiffel Tower.
 We didn't do our exercises this morning.
 Were they in Iceland last January?
 Did you have a bicycle when you were young?
 Did you do much climbing in Switzerland?

Note: For the negative and interrogative form of all verbs in the simple past, always use the auxiliary 'did''.
Irregular Verbs
Some irregular verbs form the past tense by a change in orthography (spelling), or do not
change at all. To know which ones change, and which ones do not, there is no rule, it is only a
matter of memorizing them.
Here are some examples:

Base form Simple past


Buy Bought
Do Did
Fly Flew
Forget Forgot
Light Lit
Go Went
Say Said
Beat Beat
Burst Burst
Hit Hit
Put Put

to go

 He went to a club last night.


 Did he go to the cinema last night?
 He didn't go to bed early last night.

to give

 We gave her a doll for her birthday.


 They didn't give John their new address.
 Did Barry give you my passport?

to come

 My parents came to visit me last July.


 We didn't come because it was raining.
 Did he come to your party last week?

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