Simple Past presentation. By: Angie Azocar Instituto Universitario Politecnico Santiago Mariño (I.U.P.S.M)

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

3. TIPES
Simple past of regular verbs:
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 de verb
work.
1st per.: I Worked today
2nd per.: YOU Worked today
3rd per.: HE,SHE,IT Worked yesterday

4. USE
• We use the continuous tense for actions or situations in the
past that were not completed
• We use it for continuous, uninterrupted activities. If the
action is interrupted (something is done in more
• intervals or we did more things one after another), we must
use the past simple.
• We use the past simple for activities or situations that were
completed in the past at a definite time.
• The interrogative form of "have" in the simple past normally
uses the auxiliary "did".

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

6. QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
• To make a question in simple past we need to use te
auxiliar verb DID+SUJ+VERB
• To make a affirmative short answer we need to make the
structure YES+PRONOUN+DID
• To make a negative answer we make
NO+PRONOUN+DIDN'T
Example: Did you clean your room yesterday?
• Yes, I did
• No, I didn't

7. TIPS
• 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.
• The interrogative form of "have" in the simple past normally
uses the auxiliary "did"
• For the negative and interrogative form of all verbs in the
simple past, always use the auxiliary 'did''.

8. 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?
• John Cabot sailed to America in 1498.
• My father died last year.
• He lived in Fiji in 1976.
• We crossed the Channel yesterday

9. EXAMPLES
SIMPLE PRESENT SIMPLE PAST
• I walk to school I walked to school
• She works downtown She worked downtown
• They help on Tuesday They helped on Tuesday
• He ask a lot of questions He asked a lot of questions

10. EXERCISES
• Did she want to learn french?: Yes, she wanted to learn
french
• Did the worked together for many years?: Yes, They
worked together for many years
• Did you work very hard last week?: No, I Didn't
• Did Mr. Green work with my une?: No, He Didn't
• Did we listen music until ten o'cloc last night?: No, we
Didn't listen music until ten o'cloc last nigth
• Did you work very hard last week?: Yes, I Did

11. ¡THANKS!