2. What is Simple Past?
2
The Past Simple is a verb tense that is used to
describe actions that have happened in a previous
time and that have already ended.
For example
She cleaned her house.
They talked for hours yesterday.
He slept on the sofa last night
3. Characteristics of the simple past
▪ Indicates the action performed at a specific time in the past.
▪ The main verb of the sentence is always in the past tense.
▪ It has a simple composition of "subject and predicate verb".
▪ It is the only grammatical tense that uses verbs in the past tense.
▪ In the predicate expressions that determine the time of the
sentence can be used, although it will always be the verb that
indicates whether or not the sentence is in the past tense.
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4. 4
Types of simple past
Regular Verbs
For regular English verbs, the past simple
tense is formed by adding 'ed' to the end
of the verb. This form is the same for all
personal pronouns (I, you, he, etc).
To cook - cooked
To work - worked
To walk - walked
To visit - visited
To live - lived
To call - called
To wait - waited
To offer - offered
To move - moved
To play - played
To look - looked
To divide - divided
For example
His mother cooked the turkey for the whole family
The boys called her several times
5. 5
Types of simple past
Irregular Verbs
English has several irregular verbs in the past
simple that are common verbs. There is no
simple rule to deduce the simple past tense in
English from these verbs and therefore they must
be memorized. Here we present some of the
most common verbs
To have - had
To see - saw
To take - took
To get - got
To eat -ate
To speak - spoke
To drive - drove
To go - went
To come - came
To begin - began
To bring - brought
To become - became
For example
I saw a really great movie yesterday
She chose the red dress
6. Ejercicios
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• Yesterday I saw John at the party. (See)
• I bought a present to Anna. (Buy)
• Last week I played tennis with my girlfriend. (Play)
• I stop smoking 3 years ago. (Stop)
• This morning I runned 20 km. (Run)
