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Good morning kids,let's revise the months of the year and the date with videos

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The Simple Past Tense (Form And Use)

What is the simple past tense?

The simple past - also known as the past simple or the preterite - is the most basic form of the past tense. We generally use the simple past to describe past actions - events that happened before now.

The simple past of regular verbs is formed by adding -ed to the bare infinitive (e.g., play → played, watch → watched, etc.) However, there are hundreds of irregular verbs with various forms (e.g., go => went, do => did, etc.)

This page will present the simple past tense:

its form

and its use.

The simple past tense

Before you continue the lesson read the following passage and try to see how the verbs are formed and used.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was an Austrian musician and composer. He lived from 1756 to 1791. He started composing at the age of five years old and wrote more than 600 pieces of music. He was only 35 years old when he died.

The verbs "was, lived, started, wrote, died" are in the simple past tense.

Notice that:

lived, started, and died are regular past forms.

was and wrote are irregular past forms.

The simple past of regular verbs

We form the simple past of regular verbs by adding -ed to the verb.

Verb + ed

For example, the verbs "lived, started, and died" are regular past forms. The rule is the following:

Verb + ed

Examples:

The infinitive | The simple past
live | lived
start | started
die | died
visit | visited
play | played
watch | watched
phone | phoned
marry | married

For the spelling of the -ed forms click here.

Irregular verbs

A verb whose conjugation does not follow the -ed rule above is called an irregular verb. The simple past of irregular verbs has different forms.

For example, The verbs "was, wrote" are irregular past forms. "Was" is the simple past of "to be"; "wrote" is the simple past of "write".

More on the simple past of "to be" here.

There is no rule for these verbs. You should learn them by heart.

The infinitive | The simple past
be | was/were
come | came
do | did
drive | drove
give | gave
go | went
meet | met
run | ran
see | saw
speak | spoke
swim | swam
write | wrote
write | wrote

As you can see, we can not predict the simple past forms of these verbs. They are irregular. You should learn them by heart. Here is a list of irregular verbs.

The forms of the simple past

1. The Affirmative form of the simple past:

The simple past takes the following forms in the affirmative:

Regular verbs (e.g., watch, play, visit, etc.):
Add -ed to the verb → watched, played, visited

Irregular verbs (e.g., write, do, speak, etc.):
Irregular verbs have various forms and have to be learned by heart.
- write → wrote
- do → did
- speak → spoke

I, you, he, she, it, we, they | played tennis last Sunday.
watched the movie last Saturday.
wrote the report two days ago.
did the homework yesterday evening.

Examples:

I played tennis with my friends yesterday.

I finished lunch and I did my homework.

2. The interrogative form of the simple past

To ask questions, the simple past takes the following form:

AUXILARY VERB "DID" + SUBJECT + BASE FORM OF THE VERB

Examples:

Did | I, you, he, she, it, we, they | play tennis?
watch the movie?
write the report?
do the homework?

Examples:

Did you play basketball yesterday?

Did you visit Paris last holiday?

Did you watch television?

Did you go to the gym?

Did you do the homework?

The negative form of the simple past

The rule for the negative forms of the simple past is as follows:

Did not/didn't + base form of the verb

Examples:

I, you, he, she, it, we, they | did not/didn't | play tennis last Sunday.
watch the movie last Saturday.
write the report two days ago.
do the homework yesterday evening.

I didn't like the food served at the wedding party last Saturday.

I didn't eat it.

The use of the simple past

The simple past is used principally to describe events in the past, but it also has some other uses. Here are the main uses of the simple past.

1. Finished events in the past

William Shakespeare wrote Hamlet.

Christoph Columbus discovered America in 1492.

He kissed her and left.

2. Past habitual action

I visited them every day for a year.

I drove to work every day when I worked with that company.

3. Events that were true for some time in the past

He lived in Paris for 20 years.

They talked on the phone for ten minutes.

Remember:

didn't is the short form of did not. You can say either:

I did not play basketball, or

I didn't play basketball.

Related pages:

Exercise: the simple past.

Lesson: the simple past

Lesson: the simple past of to be

Quick Links

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A List of Idiomatic Expressions

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A list of Phrasal Verbs

Phrasal verbs are generally used in spoken English and informal texts. Check out our list of hundreds of phrasal verbs classified in alphabetical order.

A list of figures of speech

Do you want to provide emphasis, freshness of expression, or clarity to your writing? Check out this list of figures of speech!

A list of irregular verbs

Do you need to learn the irregular verbs in English? Here is a list of irregular verbs with definitions and examples!

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Grammar Lessons - The Simple Past of Regular and Irregular Verbs.

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English Grammar lessons online. Learn how to use the simple past tense of regular and irregular verbs

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Cos’è il Topic?

Il topic è, sostanzialmente, l’argomento a scelta del candidato: consiste in una trattazione che può durare fino a 5 minuti in cui il candidato dialoga con l’esaminatore su un argomento di sua scelta (un libro, un’esperienza di viaggio, un personaggio storico, un articolo di attualità, un artista… qualsiasi cosa) prima di procedere alla conversazione generale basata sulle subject areas (di cui parleremo in un post prossimamente).
Una regola importante nella scelta del topic è parlare di qualcosa di cui il candidato è appassionato, che conosce bene; padroneggiare il contenuto del topic è una grande opportunità per poter utilizzare con scioltezza tutti i punti grammaticali richiesti dal livello.

Il dialogo con l’esaminatore deve essere una conversazione biunivoca e non un monologo; coinvolgere l’esaminatore con domande aiuta a far fluire meglio il dialogo e a rendere più naturale l’esposizione.

Ogni paragrafo dovrebbe avere abbastanza materiale per circa un minuto di discussione; ciò significa che dovrebbe essere di almeno 100 parole.
Dopo aver deciso l’argomento, è importante fare un po’ di ricerca e creare una lista di vocaboli di 20-50 parole nuove sul proprio argomento, per mostrare di padroneggiare il lessico specifico.

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Hi,kids...let's talk about your topic!
you know...choose a topic and try to develop it in 4 parts.
here you are the 4 grammar points to develop it:

Language requirements Language functions �

Talking about past events �

Talking about future plans and intentions

� Expressing simple comparisons � Expressing likes and dislikes � Describing manner and frequency Grammar �

Past simple tense of regular and common irregular verbs �

Going to future � Like + gerund/infinitive, eg I like shopping, I like to read books �

Adverbs of manner and frequency � Comparatives and superlatives of adjectives �

Link word but

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Hi,kids...some revision activities...try to practice doing the exercises in this file...print or copy,do the activities...you can send photos on padlet...

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Hi,kids...some revision activities...try to practice doing the exercises in this file...print or copy,do the activities...you can send photos on padlet...

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Preparation Activities - GESE Grade 3 (1)