Simple Past Tense
Use past tense
when the action is finished...
They ran a race!
I turned on the projector a minute ago.
We started class at 9:00.
Her weekend was wonderful!
I used past tense when I talked about
5 minutes ago
when I was 6 years old
yesterday
last week
last Monday
this morning
If you use,
you should use a past tense sentence
Regular past tense verbs
We started at 9.
We listened to our classmates.
We walked to school
We say -ed 3 ways
d
t
id
l
If a regular verb ends in e
just add “d”
arrive
arrived
invite invited
What’s a consonant?
A letter that’s not a vowel!
B,c,d,f,g,h,j,k,l,m,n,p,q,r,s,t,v,w,x,z NOT a, e, i, o, u,
If a regular verb
ends with
consonant + y
change the y to i
try tried
fry fried
(but play played because “a” is a vowel)
CONSONANT
vowel
What’s the past form for:
Worry, cry, copy, fry?
Worried, dried, copied, & fried
Learning irregular past tense verbs takes a lot of practice and repetition.
The past tense form is the second column.
There are MANY irregular verbs
Past of BE --- was or were
Negative: was not or were not
Were you asking a question? Was he okay?
DO NOT use DID or DIDN’T with “was”or “were”
Was for 1
Were for 2+
Always “were” for “you” (1 or 2+)
In simple past,
you don’t have to worry about person!
Use the same forms for I, you, he, she, it, we, and they!!
Base form = simple form
No --ed
No --s
No --ing
For negative statements
use did not + BASE FORM
For negative...
They didn’t talk.
She didn’t work yesterday.
We didn’t go to Honolulu.
For Questions...
Use Did + base form
Did you understand?
Did you have a good weekend?
Did he work yesterday?
Did she cook dinner last Saturday?
When do you use the simple past tense?
Any time that’s finished
NOW