- PAST SIMPLE TO BE, TO HAVE &

TO DO
Ahora que sabemos expresarnos en presente, es hora de que miremos cómo formar
expresiones en pasado. Comenzamos, como siempre, con el verbo “to be” ya que
siempre tiene sus propias formas. Abordaremos ya aparte de su forma afirmativa, sus
formas negativas e interrogativas también:

PRONOMBRES AFIRMATIVO NEGATIVO INTERROGATIVO

I Was Was not (wasn’t) Was I...?
You Were Were not(weren’t) Were you...?
He / she / it Was Was not Was he/she/it...?
We Were Were not Were we...?
You Were Were not Were you...?
They Were Were not Were they...?

I was in the supermarket = Estuve en el supermercado

They were not my friends = Ellos no fueron mis amigos
Were you a firefighter? = ¿Fuiste un bombero?

Verbos regulares

PRONOMBRES AFIRMATIVO NEGATIVO INTERROGATIVO

I played did not play (didn’t) Did I play?
You played did not play Did you play?
He / she / it played did not play Did he/she/it play?
We played did not play Did we play?
You played did not play Did you play?
They played did not play Did they play?

*You played in the park = Jugaste en el parque

*We watched the movie = Hemos visto la película
*Did he clean the window? = ¿Limpió la ventana?

Como vemos, el pasado simple para verbos regulares es extremadamente sencillo ya

que se mantiene uniforme en todas las personas, únicamente añadiendo “-ed” al final
del verbo en su forma afirmativa y conjugando el verbo “to do” como “did”. Pero no
todo es tan fácil ya que existen una serie de verbos llamados los irregulares que, al igual
que el verbo “to be”, en el pasado no siguen este patrón.
Si buscases una lista de éstos verbos, nos saldrían sobre 200. No hay que entrar en
pánico ya que la mayoría no son frecuentes o útiles. Sólo hay que seleccionar los más
importantes para nosotros, los que nos sirvan para expresar lo que hacemos
frecuentemente o en nuestra vida. Así, tenemos verbos irregulares como:

INFINITIVO PAST SIMPLE AFIRMATIVO

to become = convertir became
to begin = empezar began
to break = romper broke
to buy = comprar bought
to catch = coger caught
to cut = cortar cut
to drink = beber drank
to grow = crecer grew
to have = tener had
to forget = olvidar forgot
to give = dar gave
to learn = aprender learnt
to pay = pagar paid
to make = fabricar/hacer made
to see = ver saw
to sleep = dormir slept
to swim = nadar swam
to write = escribir wrote
toe at = comer ate
to go = ir went
to run = correr ran
to do = hacer did

Éstos verbos se usarían de la misma forma que sus hermanos regulares sólo que en vez
de añadirles “-ed” usarán su forma especial. OJO: Sólo es para su forma afirmativa ya
que, al igual que los regulares, el negativo e interrogativo se forma con el “to do” + verbo
en infinitivo.
Presta atención como “to have” y “to do” serían irregulares pero siguen las normas a
diferencia del “to be”.

*I ran in the park =

*I drank a beer last night =
*He did not sleep yesterday =
*Did you swim today? =
ANEXO I: Las formas “to do” y “to have” en pasado simple:

TO DO TO HAVE
I did I had
You did You had
He/she/it did He/she/it had
We did We had
You did You had
They did They had