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Simple Past for Beginners |
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Read the following discussion using the simple past tense
Robert: Hi Alice, what did you do last weekend?
Alice: I did a lot of things. On Saturday, I went shopping.
Robert: What did you buy?
Alice: I bought some new clothes. I also played tennis.
Robert: Who did you play?
Alice: I played Tom.
Robert: Did you win?
Alice: Of course I won!
Robert: What did you do after your tennis match.
Alice: Well, I went home and took a shower and then went out.
Robert: Did you eat in a restaurant?
Alice: Yes, my friend Jacky and I ate at 'The Good Fork'
Robert: Did you enjoy your dinner?
Alice: Yes, we enjoyed our dinner very much thank you. We also drank some wonderful wine!
Robert: Unfortunately, I didn't go out this weekend. I didn't eat in a restaurant and I didn't play tennis.
Alice: What did you do?
Robert: I stayed home and studied for my test!
Alice: Poor you!
Take a look at the following conjugation chart. Notice from the above dialogue and following chart that the simple past is used to describe what happened at a specific time in the past - last weekend in the above dialogue.
| Examples
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Usage
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Where did you go yesterday?
The flight left at 8 o'clock.
They didn't come last night.
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Finished past actions, definite past
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| Common past time expressions include:
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last (week, year, night), yesterday, ago, in 1987, when I was a child. |
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Structure
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In the positive form, for regular verbs, add an -ed to the verb. Many verbs are irregular. Some of the most common are: go -went, buy - bought, take - took, come - came, have - had, eat - ate, drink - drank. There are many irregular verbs so you will need to start learning them now.
I
You
He
She
It
We
You
They
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arrived late last night. (regular verb) came back late last night. (irregular verb) |
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Use the conjugated helping verb 'did' + not (didn't) + the base form of the verb to make negatives.
I
You
He
She
It
We
You
They
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didn't go to New York last week. |
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| Use the conjugated helping verb 'did' + subject + the base form of the verb in question forms.
| When Did |
I
You
He
She
It
We
You
They
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leave yesterday? |
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Try this past simple quiz.
Past Simple Quiz
Continue Learning for Beginners Unit 5
Past Forms, 'A' 'An' and 'The', Listening Comprehension
More beginner's Topics
