Past Simple for beginners
Past simple tense is one of the most exciting and important tenses in English. We often use it to talk about what happened before.
What Is Past Simple Tense?
The past simple tense is used to talk about an action that is complete. It indicates actions or states of being in the past.
Structure
Just add an '-ed' to the base form of the verb. For example:
- walk → walk
ed - play → play
ed - talk → talk
ed
Add '-d' if the verb already ends in '-e' to the base form of the verb. For example:
- love → love
d - free → free
d - bake → bake
d
Spelling
If the verb is regular and has one syllable, with a single vowel followed by a consonant, double the final consonant when adding '-ed' to make the past simple:
- beg → be
gg ed - skip → ski
pp ed
Irregular Verbs
Irregular verbs do not follow the rule mentioned above. These verbs have different spelling in the past tense form. For example:
- go →
went - bring →
brought - know →
knew - run →
ran - have →
had - do →
did
Past Tense of Be
'Be' is one of the special verbs in English which has two forms of past tense:
subject | Verb |
---|---|
You/We/They |
|
I/He/She/It |
|
I
They
Negation
For negation, add 'did not' or the short form 'didn't' before the base form of the verb:
Affirmative | Negative | Short Form |
---|---|---|
I ran. |
I |
I |
She walked. |
She |
She |
They talked. |
They |
They |
For negating the verb 'be' add 'not' after it.
Statement | Negation | Short Form |
---|---|---|
I was happy. |
I |
I |
They were waiters. |
They |
They |
Questions
For making questions, all you need to do is to change the place of subject and base form of the verb and use 'did' at the beginning of the sentence:
Statement | Questions |
---|---|
I ran. |
|
She walked. |
|
If the main verb of the sentence is 'to be', the question form is 'Be + Subject + ….)
Statement | Question |
---|---|
I |
|
They |
|
Uses
The past simple tense is used to talk about:
- Completed actions in the Past
I
Mary
Pronunciation of '-ed'
'-ed' endings have three different pronunciations:
- /d/: After all vowel sounds and voiced consonants (except /d/)
- /t/: After all voiceless consonants (except /t/)
- /ɪd/: After /d/ and /t/
Comments
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