EVOLVE Educational Vocational Objective Learning of Vernacular English

Past Simple

            I/you/he/she/it/we/they/you         did                   (ran/ate/walked)

The past simple indicates an action that was completed in the past.

Harry went home

They opened the box

We tried to help

                        *
ßPast---------------------------------------Now-------------------------------------Futureà

 

It can be studied by splitting the verbs in two categories – regular verbs and irregular verbs.

 

Regular verbs -            To conjugate regular verbs in the past simple we simply add     ‘-ed’ to the end of the verb. There are a few exceptions to this rule i.e. we double the final consonant when the penultimate letter of the root is a vowel, we omit the ‘e’ at the end of words.
The main difficulty with regular verbs is in pronunciation:
With verbs that end in an ‘ss’ ‘ch’ or ‘sh’ sound, the ‘-ed’ is pronounced as an aerated ‘T’ sound.
With verbs that end in a ‘t’ or ‘d’ sound. The ‘-ed’ is pronounced as ‘id’
With most other regular verbs the ‘-ed’ is pronounced as a soft ‘d’ sound.

Task 1
Sort the verbs below into their sound groups

/t/	/id/	/d/
jump       watch       kiss        open        need        search        wash        close        knit         smash       walk        expand       miss        pitch        admit        talk        crush         commit

Irregular verbs            
These present the biggest problem at this stage of learning English. The only way to learn them is to commit them to memory. The following is a list of the most frequently used irregular verbs in English. The first 11 represent 50% of irregular verb usage in English although this list does not contain the 3 auxiliary verbs ‘have’, ‘do’ and ‘be

       Base                                 Past                             Past Participle
           
1  say                                 said                              said
2  make                              made                            made
3  go                                   went                             gone
4  take                                took                              taken
5  come                              came                            come
6  see                                 saw                              seen
7  know                               knew                             known
8  get                                  got                                got/gotten (US)
9  give                                 gave                              given
10 find                                 found                            found
11 think                               thought                         thought
12 tell                                 told                               told
13 become                         became                         become
14 show                              showed                         shown
15 leave                              left                                left
16 feel                                 felt                                felt
17 put                                 put                                put
18 bring                               brought                         brought
19 begin                              began                           begun
20 keep                               kept                              kept
21 hold                                held                              held
22 write                               wrote                            written
23 stand                              stood                            stood
24 hear                               heard                            heard
25 let                                  let                                 let
26 mean                              meant                           meant
27 set                                 set                                set
28 meet                              met                               met
29 run                                 ran                                run
30 pay                                paid                              paid
31 sit                                  sat                                sat
32 speak                             spoke                           spoken
33 lie                                  lay                                lain
34 lead                                led                                led
35 read                               read                              read
36 grow                               grew                             grown
37 lose                               lost                               lost
38 fall                                  fell                                fallen
39 send                               sent                              sent
40 build                               built                              built
41 understand                      understood                    understood
42 draw                               drew                             drawn
43 break                              broke                            broken
44 spend                             spent                            spent
45 cut                                 cut                                cut
46 rise                                rose                              risen
47 drive                               drove                             driven
48 buy                                bought                         bought
49 wear                               wore                             worn
50 choose                           chose                           chosen

Learn five a day in each of their forms and try to identify patterns
i.e. stand/understand follow the same conjugation.

Task 2
Change these sentences into the past simple

1. John is from America.
2. I feel sick.
3. We collect the payments on Tuesday.
4. The package arrives at 9.00.
5. Ted plays football very well.
6. Jamie comes to see us at every show.
7. My old car is very fast.
8. The tutor checks my homework every session.
9. We move to Australia.
10. My brother is wrong.
11. The concert is in the park.
12. Spar is closed.
13. The college opens at 10.
14. We leave at 11 on Thursday the twelfth.
15. You look worried.
16. We are ready to begin!

Questions
Questions in the past simple are easy to form; we simply put the past form of the auxiliary verb ‘did’ (or ‘was/were’ if the sentence use ‘be’) before the subject (the person or thing at the beginning of the sentence) and keep the main verb in its original form.

I read a good book.
becomes
Did I read a good book?

She watched TV.
becomes
Did she watch TV?

We ate.
becomes
Did we eat?

I visited friends last month.
becomes
Did I visit friends last month?

We started a course last year.
becomes
Did we start a course last year?

Task 3
Change the statements into questions

1. James was upset.
2. The government made the policy.
3. You watched that movie.
4. They changed the words.
5. I met the guests.
6. We danced all night.
7. They kissed romantically.
8. I asked you a question.
9. She ate all the sandwiches.
10. The man and his son got off the bike.
11. The owner let you in his shop.

Negatives 
Forming negative sentences is as simple as placing ‘not’ or the contraction ‘-n’t’ after the past form of the auxiliary verbs ‘did’ or ‘was/were’.
                                 

I read a good book.
becomes
I did not read a good book.

She watched TV.
becomes
She didn’t watch TV.

We ate.
becomes
We did not eat.

I visited friends last month.
becomes
I did not visit friends last month.

 

Task 4
Write sentences in the past simple using negative forms.

 

 

 

Answers
Task 1

/t/	/id/	/d/
kiss        crush         smash       miss        wash        search        watch	need        knit     admit      expand                 commit	pitch        talk  jump       open walk               close

 

Task 2

1. John was from America.
2. I felt sick.
3. We collected the payments on Tuesday.
4. The package arrived at 9.00.
5. Ted played football very well.
6. Jamie came to see us at every show.
7. My old car was very fast.
8. The tutor checked my homework every session.
9. We moved to Australia.
10. My brother was wrong.
11. The concert was in the park.
12. Spar was closed.
13. The college opened at 10.
14. We left at 11 on Thursday the twelfth.
15. You looked worried.
16. We were ready to begin!

Task 3

1. Was James upset?
2. Did the government make the policy?
3. Did you watch that movie?
4. Did they change the words?
5. Did I meet the guests?
6. Did we dance all night?
7. Did they kiss romantically?
8. Did I ask you a question?
9. Did she eat all the sandwiches?
10. Did the man and his son get off the bike?
11. Did the owner let you in his shop?

 

Task 4

Answers may vary.