STUDY GUIDE: USE OF PAST SIMPLE TENSE

Name: ______________________________________

Date: _____________________________________

For this study guide, you need to know first:

Pronouns
Verbs in Past Simple tense
Use of did in affirmative, negative and interrogative forms
Key words that demonstrate past (ex. Yesterday, last year, etc.)

When we want to express that something happened in the past, we use the PAST SIMPLE tense. This means
that we write or speak in a special way with special words when we want to talk about things that happened
in the past. We use this tense in the following way, for AFFIRMATIVE sentences:

PERSON

VERB

(-ed)

COMPLEMENTS

(irregular verbs)
For example, if we want to say: Yo estudi matemticas ayer, it goes like this:
I STUDIED

MATH YESTERDAY

In order for you to learn and use how to express sentences in past tense, you have to learn some verbs first:
VERBS

PAST SIMPLE FORM

PRONUNCIATION

MEANING

Arrive

Arrived

/arrivd/

Llegar

Dance

Danced

/dnst/

Bailar

Do

Did

/did/

Hacer

Eat

Ate

/it/

Comer

Go

Went

/went/

Ir

Have

Had

/jd/

Tener

Listen

Listened

/lsent/

Escuchar

See

Saw

/s/

Ver / mirar

Study

Studied

/stdied/

Estudiar

Talk

Talked

/tkt/

Hablar

Review exercise: Read the sentences and write the verbs in past tense. Then, highlight the words that indicate
PAST.
1. My parents __________________________ (arrive) from Santiago yesterday.
2. Me and my friends ____________________________ (dance) at the disco last night.
3. I ____________________________ (do) my homework an hour ago.
4. She ______________________________ (eat) hamburgers last week.
5. I ______________________________ (go) to another school last year.
6. When I was a little girl, I ________________________ (have) many dolls.
7. He and his friends ____________________________ (listen) to a fun song last month.
8. My dad ________________________ (see) a U.F.O five years ago.
9. We _______________________ (study) a lot for the test two weeks ago.
10. I ______________________ (talk) with my best friend yesterday.
Maybe you noticed that there are some words or expressions that help us recognize that the sentence is in
past tense. Write them below and translate them into Spanish.
WORDS OR EXPRESSIONS

MEANING IN SPANISH

PRONUNCIATION

Now, youre able to create 5 sentences in Past Simple tense using the verbs and past expressions:
1. ________________________________________________________________________________________
2. ________________________________________________________________________________________
3. ________________________________________________________________________________________
4. ________________________________________________________________________________________
5. ________________________________________________________________________________________

For the NEGATIVE FORM to express that something did not happen, we use past simple like this:

PERSON

DIDNT

VERB

COMPLEMENTS

For example, if we want to say: Yo no estudi matemticas ayer, it goes like this:
I DIDNT

STUDY MATH YESTERDAY

Can you see the difference between the AFFIRMATIVE and NEGATIVE form?
__________________________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________________

So, be careful because if we say that something happened we use ed or the irregular verbs, but if we want
to say that something did not happen WE DONT USE ED or IRREGULAR FORMS OF VERBS.

For example:

a. Dave went to the movies two days ago.

b. Dave didnt go to the movies two days ago.

Review exercise: Read the sentence in affirmative past simple tense form, and transform them into NEGATIVE
form.

1. My parents went to Rome two years ago.

__________________________________________________________________________________________
2. My friends danced at the disco last night.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
3. I did my homework an hour ago.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
4. She ate three hamburgers last week.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
5. I arrived to Copiapo last year.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
6. When I was a little girl, I had many dolls.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
7. He and his friends listened to a fun song last month.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
8. My dad saw a scary movie last week.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
9. We studied a lot for the test two weeks ago.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
10. I talked with my best friend yesterday.
__________________________________________________________________________________________

For the INTERROGATIVE form, we speak like this:

DID

PERSON

VERB

COMPLEMENTS

For example, if we want to say: Estudiaste (t) matemticas ayer? it goes like this:
DID YOU

STUDY MATH YESTERDAY ?

It is NOT like this, because its repetitive:

DID YOU

STUDIED

MATH YESTERDAY ?

And the answers are short and simple: if it is YES, then its: YES, ____ DID / NO, ____ DIDNT
Review exercise: Read the questions and answer YES, ____ DID or NO, ___ DIDNT. Follow the example.
0. Did your mum eat some bread last week?

She

Yes, she did

1. Did you go to school yesterday? ______________________
_______________________________________________________________
2. Did your parents dance in their birthdays? _____________________
_______________________________________________________________
3. Did you do your homeworks? ________________________
_______________________________________________________________
4. Did your cousin have car when he was a little boy? __________________________
_______________________________________________________________
5. Did you study for the last History test? ___________________________
_______________________________________________________________
6. Did your dad arrive to Copiapo last week? _________________________
_______________________________________________________________