The simple past tense in English is used to describe completed actions in the past. It is equivalent to the imperfect and indefinite past tenses in Spanish. Regular verbs are made past tense by adding "-ed" to the infinitive. Irregular verbs have unique past tense forms. The pronunciation of "-ed" depends on the final letter of the verb's infinitive form.

1. Simple past
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Institute Politecnico Santiago Mariño

2. The simple past tense in English is
equivalent to the imperfect past
tense and indefinite past tense of
Spanish. We use the simple past for
complete actions in the past. The
time period of these actions is not
important as in Spanish. In the past
simple there are regular verbs and
irregular verbs.

3. WANT → WANTED
learn→learned
stay→ stayed
walk→walked
show→showed
To form the past
simple with regular
verbs, we use the
infinitive and add the
ending "-ed". The
shape is the same for
all people (I, you, he,
she, it, we, they).

4. PRONUNCIATION
With infinitives ending in
"p", "f", "k" or "s" (voiceless
consonants, except "t") we
pronounce the ending "-
ed" as a "t".
Examples:looked/kissed
With infinitives ending in
"b", "g", "l", "m", "n", "v",
"z" (voiced consonants,
except "d") or a vowel, we
pronounce only the " d ”.
Examples:yelled/cleaned
With infinitives ending in
"d" or "t", we pronounce
"e" as an "i".
Examples:ended /waited
We pronounce the ending "-ed" differently depending on the letter that goes to
the end of the infinitive. In general the "e" is silent.

5. STRUCTURE
Affirmative Sentences
Negative Sentences
Interrogative
Sentences
• She was a doctor.
• The keys were in the drawer.
• I wanted to dance.
• They learned English.
• We believed him.
• I bought a blue car.
• She wasn’t a doctor.
• The keys weren’t in the
drawer.
• Did you want to dance?
• Did they learn English?Did you believe hi
m?
• Did you buy a blue car?