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Understanding Simple Past Tense

The document explains verb tenses, focusing on the simple past tense used for completed actions. It details how to form the simple past with regular verbs by adding -ed and with irregular verbs that change form. Additionally, it highlights the unique forms of the verb 'be' in the simple past, which are 'was' and 'were'.

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Adiba Ahamed
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14 views2 pages

Understanding Simple Past Tense

The document explains verb tenses, focusing on the simple past tense used for completed actions. It details how to form the simple past with regular verbs by adding -ed and with irregular verbs that change form. Additionally, it highlights the unique forms of the verb 'be' in the simple past, which are 'was' and 'were'.

Uploaded by

Adiba Ahamed
Copyright
© All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Video Title: Simple Past (by ESL)

What are verb tenses?

Verb tenses show the time that an action takes place. An action can take place either in the
past, present or future.

Simple past is a type of verb tense. We use this tense for finished past actions.

Example: I watched a nice movie yesterday.


I ate dinner two hours ago.
I was busy last week.

How do we form simple past using regular verbs?

We add -ed to regular verbs to form simple past. This verb form is the same for all subjects.

Subject.+ verb + -ed

Example:

The simple past of “watch” Is “watched”

They watched TV.


I watched TV.
She/He watched TV.
You watched TV.
The student/students watched TV.

More examples:

I walked my dog yesterday.


She played the guitar at my party last month.
The students studied last night.

How do we form simple past using irregular verbs?

When irregular verbs are turning into simple past, we do not use -ed. It takes a different
verb form instead.

Examples

Do -> Did
Drink -> Drank
Eat -> Ate
Go -> Went
Have -> Had
Run -> Ran
Say -> Said
Sing -> Sang
Sleep -> Slept
Write -> Wrote

The verb form is the same for all subjects.

Subject + irregular verb form

Example:
I ate pizza
He/She ate pizza.
They ate pizza.
We ate pizza

Which simple past verb changes form for different subjects?

“Be” does this. The two simple past forms of be are “was” and “were”.

Example”

I was tired.
She was tired.
They were tired.
We were tired.
The dog was jumping for joy.
My shoes were very expensive.

Notice when the subjects are plural we use “were”, but if the subject is singular we use
“was”.

Practice:

I drank coffee yesterday morning. (drink)


He played guitar yesterday. (play)
She watched TV last night. (watch)
We went to Paris eight years ago. (go)
The student was tired after class. (be)

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