Session Two

Tenses
Past Simple Tense
Outline
1- Grammar Rules
2-Uses
3-Time Expression Words
4-Assignments
A- Grammar Rules
 1-Affirmative Sentence

Subject + Verb Past

E.g. She cleaned the house.
They cleaned the house.
 Subjects

Singular Plural

He, she , and it They, we, you and I

Two Types of Verbs
English has two types of
verbs in the past tense:
1-Regular
2-Irregular
1- Regular Verbs
 Regular verbs are verbs that end with –ed for all persons.
 Verb + ed

E.g. Walk + ed= walked

Talk+ ed + talked
-ed Spelling Rules
1- when the verb ends in "e", add only "d."
For example, arrive + d = arrived.
2- when the verb ends in consonant + "y," change the "y" to
"i" and add "-ed".
For example, study + ed = studied".
3- when the verb ends in vowel + "y," add "-ed".
For example, "play + ed = played".
4- when a one-syllable verb ends in vowel + consonant,
double the consonant.
For example, "stop + p + ed = stopped".
2- Irregular verbs
 Irregular Verbs are the verbs that do not end with – ed and
they have to be memorized. Such as the followings:

Take Took
See Saw
Bring Brought
Eat Ate
2- Negative Sentence
 S + did not (didn’t) + verb base …. .

e.g. She did not go out for a picnic.

They did not write a letter to him.
3- Interrogative Sentence
 Did + S + Verb base …. ?

e.g. Did she go out for a picnic?

Did they write a letter to him?
4- WH- Q words Question Sentence

What
Why
When
Where
How + did + S+ verb base …. ?
Who
How much
How long
How many

e.g. Where did she go for a picnic?

Whom did you write a letter to?
5- Tag Questions
A- Affirmative Tag questions
sentence . Yes, S + did.

e.g. Did she go to school? Yes, she did.

Did they come back home? Yes, they did.
5- Tag Questions

B- Negative Tag questions

sentence . No, S + did not (didn’t).

e.g. Did she go to school? No, she did not.

Did they come back home? No, they did not.
B- Use
 When do we use the Simple Past tense?
1- Finished actions in the past
We use the Simple Past to express actions that started and
finished at a specific time in the past.
e.g. William Shakespeare died in 1616.
  2- Actions that happened over a period of time in the
past.

 E.g. She taught Spanish for three years.

3-Habitual Actions
 It is also used to talk about habitual or repeated actions
that took place in the past.

 E.g. When I was a child we always went to the seaside on

bank holidays.
 3. together with the Past Progressive/Continuous – the
Simple Past interrupted an action which was in
progress in the past.
 E.g While Dennis was reading outside, it started to rain.

 1st action → Past Progressive → was reading

 2nd action → Simple Past → started
Diagram
Typical Time expressions used with Past
Simple Tense:

1- yesterday
2- Last
Last week, last month, last year, last decade…
3- Ago
two weeks ago, three days ago, a moment ago...
4- When + past
When he was a child, when I lived in Germany, when I was
ten...
5- in + year
In 2000, in 1987, in 2020….
Examples
 Yesterday, she went out.
 Two years ago, they got married.
 She could speak four languages when she lived in the UK.
 They moved in here last week.
 We travelled to Italy in 2000.
 ASSIGNMNETS
 Assignment 01

 Use the words to write information questions with the

correct form of DID:

1- When/ you/ wake up -------------------------------------

2-What time/ Earl/eat breakfast--------------------------
3-How/ Josh and Lisa/ get to school
everyday-----------------------------------------------
4-Where/ Anna/ work ----------------------------------------
Assignment 02
 Circle the correct verb to complete the sentence:
1-Julie ate/ eats lunch late yesterday.
2-I go/ went to work late this morning.
3-They take/took A Spanish class three months ago.
4-We built/ build our house in 2008.
5-You could/ can cook when you lived alone.
Assignment 03
Write the past form of the followings:
1- go
2-understand
3-Be
4-Put
5-Discover
6-Hang
Assignment 04
Negate the following statement:
1-James Cook reached the South Pole.
2-Marco Polo explored Austria.
3- John Donne was an American poet.
4-Charles Dickens wrote Jane Eyre.
Assignment 05
 Listening part

Listen to the sentences that I am going to read and correct

them if necessary. I will read each sentence twice.
 Assignment 06
 Reading part

 William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright and actor of the 

Renaissance era. He was an important member of the King’s Men company of
theatrical players from roughly 1594 onward. Shakespeare married 
Anne Hathaway on November 28, 1582, in Worcester, in Canterbury Province.
Hathaway was from Shottery, a small village a mile west of
Stratford. Shakespeare was 18 and Anne was 26, and, as it turns out, pregnant.
Their first child, a daughter they named Susanna, was born on May 26, 1583.
Two years later, on February 2, 1585, twins Hamnet and Judith were born.
Hamnet later died of unknown causes at age 11. Shakespeare earned a living as
an actor and a playwright in London and possibly had several plays produced. 
By 1599, Shakespeare and his business partners built their own theater on the
south bank of the Thames River, which they called the Globe Theater. 

 Read the paragraph carefully and then try to find the positive sentences in past simple tense.
Assignment 07
 What did you do during Newroz break holidays? Write 6-
8 sentences.
Thanks