Contents   

1.4.2 Past Simple 

The bolded verbs: had, was, wasn’t, were, decided, prepared, arrived, kicked, squashed, opened, asked, looked, started, and answered are in the past simple tense.

 Regular verbs, we add -ed to the verb: arrive – arrived       open – opened    ask – asked  

Pay attention to the past simple tense of verb to be

I                       was

You                 were

He / She / It     was

We / They       were I                       wasn’t

You                 weren’t

He / She / It     wasn’t

We / They       weren’t Was      I…?                      

Were    you …?               

Was      he / she / it…?     

Were we / they…?       

Read the table:

Affirmative Negative Interrogative

I played football.

You read the book yesterday.

She did her homework.

He cut his finger last night.

It worked all day.

We saw a lion.

They went to the beach. I didn’t play football.

You didn’t read the book yesterday.

She didn’t do her homework.

He didn’t cut his finger last night.

It didn’t work all day.

We didn’t see a lion.

They didn’t go to the beach. Did I play football?

Did you read the book yesterday?

Did she do her homework?

Did he cut his finger last night?

Did it work all day?

Did we see a lion? 

Did they go to the beach?

Note: in the negative we use auxiliary verb didn’t +infinitive of verb. …didn’t see….

          In the interrogative, we use auxiliary verb did + subject + infinitive of verb:

              Did we see a lion?      Did they go to the beach?     Did Sara do her homework?

Use

We use the past simple for actions completed in the past.

e.g. Rita went to Swaziland last year.  I wasn’t in this school two months ago.

We use the past simple with the following time expressions: 

- yesterday     - three days / weeks / months / years ago     - last week /month /year

- in 2004        - in the 19th century       - in those days

Note: check the irregular verbs list at the end of this module. 

1.4.3 past continuous tense

Form 

  Affirmative                             Negative                               Interrogative

I was cutting I was not cutting Was I cutting…?

You were playing You were not playing Were you playing…?

He     

She was dancing

It          He

She was not dancing

It                  he

Was   she   dancing…?

            it

We

You  were asking

They We

You were not asking

they we

Were  you   asking…?

they

Examples:

We were asking a lot of questions.   She wasn’t dancing very well.     Were you playing cards?

Spelling: 

- verbs that end in -e:  make – making;     come – coming;    write - writing    (we remove -e)

- verbs that end in vowel + consonant: stop – stopping;   run – running;     swim - swimming  (we double the last letter)

Use

We use the past continuous when:

two or more actions were taking place at the same time in the past.

e.g. Grandma was cooking while grandpa was cleaning the house.

We describe an action which was interrupted by another action in the past.

e.g. The telephone rang while Tonecas was having a shower.

Read again the grammar notes. If you have doubts, ask for help.