Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Years
1906 (nineteen oh-six)
1988 (nineteen eighty-eight)
2007 (two thousand [and] seven)
2015 (twenty fifteen)
Experiences
get into trouble (v)
move to another city (v)
move to another country (v)
Other words
bilingual (adj)
childhood (n)
close friend (n)
Grammar
be born
Statements
You can use the simple past of be to talk about when and where you were born.
For statements with be born, use subject + was / wasn't or were / weren't born:
You can use the simple past of be to ask questions about when and where someone was born.
To ask a Yes-No question with be born, use Was / Were + subject + born . . . ?:
B Yes, I was.
You can use the simple past to talk about actions and events before now:
The verb is the same for all subjects (I / you / he / she / it / we / they).
Irregular verbs like leave, go, come, grow up, and speak are different:
I grew up bilingual.
You can use the simple past to ask and answer questions about actions and events before
now.
To ask a Yes-No question in the simple past, use Did + subject + verb . . . ?:
B Yes, I did.
or
B No, I didn't.
To ask an information question in the simple past, use question word + did + subject +
verb . . . ?:
Time expressions
You can use time expressions to say when something happened in the past.
• Use last + year, month, week, and days of the week to mean "the one before now":
• Use for + a period of time (for example, six years, a long time) to say how long:
A How long did you live in São Paulo? Did you live there for a long time?
B Yes. I lived there for six years.
In negative statements you can also say long. It means "for a long time":
B I didn't live there long.
• Use time words + ago to say how long before now something happened:
We didn't leave São Paulo until 1997. Then we came to the US.