Past Simple Tense
Teacher Kaliana
We use the past tense to talk about:
something that happened once in the past:
We went to Spain for our holidays last year.
They got home very late last night.
something that happened several times in the past:
When I was a teenager, I walked a mile to school every day.
something that was true for some time in the past:
I lived abroad for ten years.
She played a lot of tennis when she was younger.
*The past simple tense is often used with specific time markers. Common time
indicators include:
Yesterday - last week - in 1980
Complete the text using the correct past simple form:
My last vacation
Let me tell you about my last vacation. I _________ (go) to São Paulo with my brother.
We _____________ (travel) by plane and ___________ (arrive) at Cumbica airport very
early in the morning. My boyfriend _________ (be) there to pick us up by car. We
didn't stay at a hotel. We __________ (stay) at my boyfriend's house in the countryside
of São Paulo. The place is beautiful and the weather _______ (be) very nice. We have
many relatives in São Paulo and we _________ (visit) almost all of them. I also have
many friends there but I only ___________ (visit) two of them. We __________ (decide)
to visit a Buddhist temple and it ______ (be) wonderful! It is __________ (locate) in the
town of Cotia, in São Paulo. We ____________ (walk) around the place, and ________
(take) many pictures. We _____ (see) beautiful statues and my favorites were "the
little buddhas". There __________ (be) many people visiting the temple. The place is
beautiful! The walls of the temple are painted in bright colors, with a lot of details in
gold. We __________ (walk) through the gardens. The atmosphere of the place
_________ (be) very peaceful and quiet. Everything _________ (be) very clean and
organized. At night we ________ (go) to a nice restaurant to eat sushi. We love
Japanese food! There was a nice store near the temple, but we didn't buy anything.
We ________ (have) a great time visiting the temple. We are thinking of going back
there next vacation. If you like visiting different places and getting to know about
other people's cultures, we recommend the experience at the Zulai Temple!
Let’s practice
a) Where did you go on your last vacation?
_________________________________________________________
b) Who did you go with?
_________________________________________________________
c) Where did you stay?
_________________________________________________________
d) What did you do there?
_________________________________________________________
e) Did you have a good time?
_________________________________________________________