SIMPLE PAST TENSE

The purpose of simple past tense is to talk about things that happened in the past.

There are two form of simple past tense :

1. Verbal sentence
 Positive :

Subject + V2 + object

She studied English yesterday

 Negative

Subject + did not + V1 + Object

She did not study English yesterday

 Did + Subject + V1 + Object ?

Did she study English Yesterday?

Verb in Past form :

 The simple past tense is usually made by adding –ed to the verb:
Example :
 I opened the door and looked inside
 The plane landed ten minute ago
 My cousin visited us last summer

 If a verb ends in e, just add d to make the simple past tense.

Example :
 Who closed all the window?
 We lived in that house when I was a baby
 She smiled when she saw me.

 If a verb ends in y-, change the y to i before adding –ed

Example :
 I cariied my mom’s shopping bag
 My brother cried when he fell of his bike
 We hurried to the station to catch the train.
 With some short verbs that end in a consonant, you must double the consonant before adding
–ed
Example :
  I climbed over the fence and ripped my shirt
 The stranger grabbed my arm
 The dog wagged its tail when it saw the boscuits.

2. Nominal sentence
 Positive

Subject + to be (was, were) + adjective

She was happy

They were happy

 Negative

Subject + to be (was, were) + not + adjective

She was not happy

The were not happy

 Question

To be ( was, were) + subject + adjective

Was she happy?

Were thet happy?

The words was and were are the simple past forms of the verb be :
 Was is the simple past form of am and is. Use was with singular nouns like “my dad” and
“the teacher” and with the pronouns he, she and it.
 Were is the simple past tense form of are. Use were with plural nouns like “my parents” and
“jenny and mary” and with the pronouns we, you and they.
 The example of simple past tense :
 Ten years ago, I was only a baby
 My friends was ill yesterday
 Mom was angry when she saw the broken vase.
 We were away on vacation last month.
Practice 1
Fill in the blanks with was or were

It (1) ................a beautiful Sunday and there (2) ................n’t a cloud in the sky. Mom, dad and I (3)
...............all in the garden. Dad (4) ......................in the vegetable garden. Planting some seeds and
mom and I (5) ................busy with other jobs. The sun (6) .....................hot and soon I (7)
...............feeling very tired . Mom and dad (8) ...........n’t tired at all. They went on working for a long
time. I (9) ...........glad when it (10) ......................time to go inside and have a drink.

PRACTICE 2

Draw a circle around the correct past tense verb form in each sentence below

1. I (losed/lost) my watch in the park

2. David (hurt/hurted) his knee when he (falled/fell)
3. I kicked the ball hard and it ( breaked/broke) a window
4. My new shoes (cost/costed) a lot of money.
5. I (getted/got) this book from the library
6. We had a garage where we ( keeped/kept) our car.
7. Ali ( shew/ showed) me the cut on his knee.
8. The glass (falled/ fell) off the table and (breaked/broke)
9. We (selled/sold) our old car and (buyed/ bought) a new one.
10. The bell (ringed/rang) and we all (goed/went) into school
11. The dog (cathed/caught) the ball in its mouth.
12. The man ( kneeled/knelt) down to talk to he little boy
13. I (meeted/ met) my friend in the park
14. Our cat (runned/run) onto the road in front of a car.
15. Jane (writed / wrote) a letter to her best friend.