The document summarizes the simple past tense in English. It describes how the simple past tense is used to talk about actions and states that were completed in the past. It discusses the formation of regular and irregular past tense verbs. It also covers how to form negative statements and yes/no questions in the past tense.

1. The Simple Past Tense By Gaby Rinkerman

2. The Simple Past Tense The simple past tense describes actions and states that began and ended in the past Example: I lived in France in 1980. He was sick last week. They were late yesterday.

3. FORM There are regular verbs and irregular verbs. Regular : study studied live lived stay stayed Irregular : go went be was – were do did All regular past tense verbs end in “ed”

4. Spelling of “ed” form Most verbs – add “ed” Example: walk walk ed order order ed Verbs that end in “e” – add only “d” Example: live live d decide decide d Verbs that end in consonant “y”- change y to i and add “ed” Example: study stud ied carry carr ied Verbs that end in CVC double the last consonant Example: s hop sho pp ed s top sto pp ed per mit permi tt ed ad mit admi tt ed Do not double the last consonant if the last syllable is not stressed: lis ten liste n ed

5. Irregular Verbs Some verbs have irregular past tense forms: fall fell feel felt break broke come came These verbs don’t follow any spelling rules.

6. Negative Statements To form negative statements, use: did + not (didn’t) + base form Example: He didn’t call me. She didn’t study French. Don’t use didn’t with the verb TO BE, use to be + not: Example: He wasn’t there yesterday. They weren’t happy.

7. Yes / No questions and short answers To form yes/no questions, use: did + subject + base form Example: Did he study English last night? Did they learn to play the piano? To form short answers to yes/no questions, use: yes + subject pronoun + did Or no + subject pronoun+ didn’t Example: Yes, he did. No, they didn’t.

8. Time Phrases Some common time expressions used with the past tense are: yesterday many years ago a long time ago before this year at that time for many years this morning in 19— last night, Saturday, weekend, year…