Past Simple

Past Simple

PAST SIMPLE

it is used principally to describe events in the past, although it also has some other uses. The simple past tense shows that an action started and completed in the past and has no relevance to the present time at all. It can alsobe used to describe how someone felt, what their emotional condition was, at a point in the past.

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TIMELINE

PAST

PRESENT

FUTURE

Structure

Affirmative

Question

Negative

Subject + Verb in past + Complement

1. Aux DID + S + Verb in simple form + C?

1. S + Aux DID + NOT + V in simple form + C

2. To Be + S + C ?

2. S + To Be + NOT + C

Exceptions

Rules

• change | changed
• believe | believed

Verbs ending in "e"

• stop | stopped
• commit | committed

Verbs

Verbs ending with short vowel and a consonant (except "y" or "w", double the final consonant.

To form the past simple with regular verbs, we use the infinitive and add the ending "-ed". The form is the same for all persons (I, you, he, she, it, we, they).

• study | studied
• try | tried

Verbs ending with consonant and "y", change "y" to an "i"

• be | was/were
• do | did
• have | had
• sell | sold
• write | wrote

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Irregular verbs

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PRONUNCIATION

We pronounce the "-ed" ending differently depending on the letter at the end of the infinitive. In general, "e" is silent.

Infinitives ending in "p", "f", "k" or "s"

Infinitives ending in "b", "g", "l", "m", "n", "v", "z"

We pronounce the ending "-ed" as a "t".

We pronounce only the "d"

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Infinitives ending in "d" or "t".

We pronounce the "e" as an "i".

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