Instituto Politecnico "Santiago Mariño"

1. January, 2020
NAME:
Pedro Flores
PAST
SIMPLE
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
Ministry of Higher Education
"Santiago Mariño" Polytechnic University Institute
Porlamar Extension

2. PAST SIMPLE
The Simple Past is a verbal tense of
the Past that is used to :
Describe those actions that took
place at a certain time in the past
actions
DEFINITION

3. CHARACTERISTIC
Indicates an action that was performed at
a specific time in the past.
The main verb of the sentence is always
in the past.
It is composed of simple elements. Therefore,
the following formula is used in its composition:
S+V (Past ed/ irreg) +C

4. Applications
1- Actions that happened at a specific time
in the past, whether known or implied.
Example: I saw your brother yesterday.
2- Actions that happened one behind the
other.
Example: I had dinner. Watched tv for a
while and then went to bed.
3- Action that interrupted another that was
in process.
Example: I was driving to work when I
had an accident.

5. Types
To describe actions or routines of the past, it is necessary to know how to
distinguish between the 2 types of verbs: regular and irregular.
In the case of regular verbs, we have to:
1. If the verb ends in a consonant, the ending
“-ed” must be added.
2. If the verb ends in "-e", only "-d" should be
added at the end.
3. If the regular verb ends in –y, and that letter
is preceded by a consonant, the –y must be
changed to the –ied particle.
4. If the last syllable of the verb is where the
accent rests and it is composed of
consonant-vowel-consonant, said
consonant must be duplicated before
adding “-ed”.
5. If the verb ends in “-l”, it must be duplicated
and added “-ed”.
Regular verbs
There are verbs, which cannot be given the
ending "-ed", and then, one must know what is
the past form of a certain verb in infinitive.
1. In the case of affirmations, after we point to the subject,
the verb must be put in the past (without adding any “-s”
for third parties as in the present simple); followed by
them, they will be followed by the complement and its
due expression of time.
2. In the case of denials, the auxiliary “did not” must be
added between the subject and the verb; Since the latter
is the past form of "do," it is unnecessary and incorrect
(grammatically speaking) to put the verb in the past, so we
must put it into the present.
3. In the case of the questions, the auxiliary “did” will be
placed before the whole sentence, followed by the subject
and the verb, again, in the present, as we remember, the
auxiliary already indicates that the time is past.
Irregular verbs

6. Example with Regular Verbs
Affirmative Sentences
Pronoun/Subject + Verb Past Form + Complement + Time Expression
Daniel and his sister visited to their cousins that live in Kansas last week.
Negatives Sentences
Pronoun/Subject + Aux. Didn´t (did not) + Verb Present Form + Complement + Time Expression
Daniel and his sister didn’t visit to their cousins that live in Kansas last week.
Interrogative sentences
Aux. Did + Subject + Verb Present Form + Complement + Time Expression +?
Did Daniel and his sister visit to their cousins that live in Kansas last week ?

7. Excercises
Choose the best option:
1- I______ a car last year.
A. Bought
B. Was
C. Worked
I bought a car last year.
2- I ______ yesterday
A. Worked
B. Work
C. Did
I worked yesterday.
3- ______ you work yesterday? .
A. Didn´T
B. Was
C. Did
Did you work yesterday
4- I ______ happy last week.
A. Worked
B. Was
C. Didn´t
I was happy last week.

8. List of regular verbs

9. List of Irregular verbs