PAST SIMPLE 

 
Is used to express events or actions that happened before now and already
finished. 
Signal words: 
 
 In 1995                                
 Last year 
 Last month 
 Last night 
 Yesterday 
 An hour ago 
 
Rules: 
At the end of the regular verbs add a d – ed or ied. 
 
Add d if a regular verb ends in one or more vowels, a single consonat with
the exeption of X, and e. 
 
Examples: 
Bake – baked 
Agree – agreed 
Arrive – arrived 
Bore – bored 
Smile – smiled 
Die – died 
Receive - received 
Save – saved 
 
Add ed when a regular verb end in a singular vowel and a singular
consonant, excepting the X. Before adding the ed double the consonant. 
 
Also add ed to regular verbs ending in other spelling patterns. 
 
Add ed if a regular verb ends in vowel and y 
Examples: 
Beg – begged                 * watch - watched   
Drop – dropped             * wish - wished 
Clap – clapped               * work - worked 
Hop – hopped                * turn - turned 
Pin – pinned                   * talk – talked 
Stop – stopped               * switch – switched 
 
Stay – stayed     
Pray – prayed 
Enjoy – enjoyed 
Delay – delayed 
Annoy - annoyed 
Play – played 
Obey – obeyed 
 
When a regular verb ends with consonant and y add ied. 
 
Examples: 
 
Study – studied 
Apply – applied 
Try – tried 
Marry – married 
Carry – carried 
Copy – copied 
 
When a regular verb ends with x just add ed not doble x. 
 
Examples:  
 
Mix – mixed 
Fax – faxed 
Tax – taxed 
Fix – fixed 
 
 
Structure 
Subject + verb + complement + . 
 
Examples:  
I cooked the dinner last night. 
You played football soccer last year. 
He fixed the car yesterday.  
She watched TV. an hour ago. 
It climbed the tree yesterday. 
We arrived to L.A. last month. 
They helped the stray dogs yesterday. 
 
NEGATIVE 
 
We use did not to make negatives with the past simple. 
 
I did not wait for the bus. 
 
Structure 
 
Subject + auxiliary verb + not + main verb + complement + .