Past Tenses Revision

The simple past is a verb tense that is used to talk about things that happened
or existed before now. Imagine someone asks what your brother Wolfgang did
while he was in town last weekend.

Wolfgang entered a hula hoop contest.

He won the silver medal

How to Formulate the Simple Past

For regular verbs, add -ed to the root form of the verb (or just -d if the root
form already ends in an e):

Play→Played Type→Typed Listen→Listened Push→Pushed Love→Loved

For irregular verbs, things get more complicated. The simple past tense of
some irregular verbs looks exactly like the root form:

Put→Put Cut→Cut Set→Set Cost→Cost Hit→Hit

For other irregular verbs, including the verb to be, the simple past forms are
more erratic:

See→Saw Build→Built Go→Went Do→Did Rise→Rose

Am/Is/Are→Was/Were

The good news is that verbs in the simple past tense (except for the verb to
be) don’t need to agree in number with their subjects.

Wolfgang polished his medal. The other winners polished their medals too.

How to Make the Simple Past Negative

Fortunately, there is a formula for making simple past verbs negative, and it’s
the same for both regular and irregular verbs (except for the verb to be). The
formula is did not + [root form of verb]. You can also use
the contraction didn’t instead of did not.

Wolfgang did not brag too much about his hula hoop skills. Wolfgang’s
girlfriend didn’t see the contest.

For the verb to be, you don’t need the auxiliary did. When the subject of the
sentence is singular, use was not or wasn’t. When the subject is plural,
use were not or weren’t.

The third-place winner was not as happy as Wolfgang. The fourth-place

winner wasn’t happy at all. The onlookers were not ready to leave after the contest
ended. The contestants weren’t ready to leave either

How to Ask a Question

The formula for asking a question in the simple past tense is did + [subject] +
[root form of verb].

Did Wolfgang win the gold medal or the silver medal? Where did Wolfgang go to
celebrate? Did the judges decide fairly, in your opinion?

When asking a question with the verb to be, you don’t need the auxiliary did.
The formula is was/were + [subject].

Was Wolfgang in a good mood after the contest? Were people taking lots of pictures

 Exercise on Simple Past
 Last year I…spent..(spend) my holiday in Ireland.
 It …was…(be) great.
 I …travelled..(travel) around by car with two friends and we…visited…
(visit) lots of interesting places.
 In the evenings we usually…went… (go) to a pub.
 One night we even…learned…. (learn) some Irish dances.
 We…were… (be) very lucky with the weather.
 It …didn’t rain…(not / rain) a lot

Past Continuous Tense

The past continuous (also called past progressive) is a verb tense which is used to
show that an ongoing past action was happening at a specific moment of interruption,
or that two ongoing actions were happening at the same time

Past Continuous Forms

The past continuous is formed using was/were + present participle. Questions
are indicated by inverting the subject and was/were. Negatives are made
with not.
 Statement: You were studying when she called.
 Question: Were you studying when she called?
 Negative: You were not studying when she called.
Exercise on Past Progressive
 When I phoned my friends, they……were playing……. (play) monopoly.
 Yesterday at six I ……was preparing…(prepare) dinner.
 The kids…were…playing… (play) in the garden when it suddenly began
to rain.
 I …was practising….(practise) the guitar when he came home.
 We…………were…not…cycling….. (not / cycle) all day.
 While Aaron ……was working…….(work) in his room, his friends …were
swimming….(swim) in the pool
 Past Perfect Tense
The past perfect, also called the pluperfect, is a verb tense used to talk about
actions that were completed before some point in the past.

We were shocked to discover that someone had graffitied “Tootles was here” on our front
door. We were relieved that Tootles had used washable paint.

The past perfect tense is for talking about something that happened before
something else

The Past Perfect Formula

The formula for the past perfect tense is had + [past participle]. It doesn’t
matter if the subject is singular or plural; the formula doesn’t change.

How to Make the Past Perfect Negative

Making the past perfect negative is simple! Just

insert not between had and [past participle].

We looked for witnesses, but the neighbors had not seen Tootles in the act. If Tootles had not
included his own name in the message, we would have no idea who was behind it.

How to Ask a Question

The formula for asking a question in the past perfect tense is had + [subject]
+ [past participle].

Had Tootles caused trouble in other neighborhoods before he struck o

Exercise
Choose the correct verb from the list below to complete the following
sentences. Put the verb in the past perfect ( had + past participle)
start- write-leave-fly-close-eat-change-go
1- When I got to the house, Mary wasn`t there. She…………had
…………….already………left……………….
2- I didn`t recognize my old classmate because she ……had……
changed…………..so much
3- We were late for the show last night. By the time we got to
the theater, the movie……………had……………already……
started………….
4- Yesterday I went on my first plane trip. I was very nervous
because I……hadn’t…….never………flown………….before
5- I couldn`t eat much dinner last night because I……had……
eaten………….such a big lunch
6- I couldn`t buy any groceries last night because when I got to
the supermarket , it……had……..already………closed………..
7- Last week our teacher gave back the essays we ……had……
written……………….the week before
8- The house was quiet when Andrew got home. Everyone
…………had…gone……….to bed several hours earlier