1st Meeting - Simple Past Tense

We know about the three types of tenses that are used in English Grammar namely Past Tense, Present Tense and Future Tense. Each of these tenses is actually verbs that are used to indicate the occurrence of an event or action at a particular time. Now, we will learn and understand more about the Past Tense and its different types.

As we can understand from the name, a past tense verb is used to indicate an action, event or condition that has happened in the past. The past tense in English is used:

• - to talk about the past
• - to talk about hypotheses (when we imagine something)
• - for politeness.

Each tense has four aspects that talks about the completion of the event or action and based on that, we have four types of past tense verbs:

• - Simple Past Tense
• - Past Continuous Tense
• - Past Perfect Tense
• - Past Perfect Continuous Tense.

1. SIMPLE PAST TENSE

The simple past tense, sometimes called the preterite, is used to talk about a completed action in a time before now. The simple past is the basic form of past tense in English. The time of the action can be in the recent past or the distant past and action duration is not important.

Examples

• - John Cabot sailed to America in 1498.
• - My father died last year.
• - He lived in Fiji in 1976.
• - We crossed the Channel yesterday.

You always use the simple past when you say when something happened, so it is associated with certain past time expressions

• - frequency: often, sometimes, always
  I sometimes walked home at lunchtime.
  I often brought my lunch to school.
• - a definite point in time: last week, when I was a child, yesterday, six weeks ago
  We saw a good film last week.
  Yesterday, I arrived in Geneva.
  She finished her work at seven o'clock
  I went to the theatre last night
• - an indefinite point in time: the other day, ages ago, a long time ago
  People lived in caves a long time ago.
  She played the piano when she was a child.

Note: the word ago is a useful way of expressing the distance into the past. It is placed after the period of time: a week ago, three years ago, a minute ago.

Be Careful: The simple past in English may look like a tense in your own language, but the meaning may be different.

Forming the Simple Past Tense

		Simple past tense of to be, to have, to do
		Simple past, irregular verbs Some verbs are irregular in the simple past. Here are the most common ones. to go - He went to a club last night. - Did he go to the cinema last night? - He didn't go to bed early last night. to give - We gave her a doll for her birthday. - They didn't give John their new address. - Did Barry give you my passport? to come - My parents came to visit me last July. - We didn't come because it was raining. - Did he come to your party last week?
		Simple Past Tense Exercise:  change the verbs in brackets to the simple past.  They all (go) ___ shopping.  I never (imagine) ____ I would see you here.  We (book) ___ two tickets for the show.  He (collect) ___ his children from school.  Were you (frighten) ___ of the dark when you were young?  Who (eat) ___ my chocolate?  I (feel) so tired that I went straight to bed.  We (grow) ___ this tree from a seed.  She (lose) ___ her way home.  He thought I (steal) his umbrella.
		Clik the button bellow to show the answer

1) They all went shopping.
2) I never imagined I would see you here.
3) We booked two tickets for the show.
4) He collected his children from school.
5) Were you frightened of the dark when you were young?
6) Who ate my chocolate?
7) I felt) so tired that I went straight to bed.
8) We grew this tree from a seed.
9) She lost her way home.
10) He thought I stole his umbrella.