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SIMPLE PAST

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UNIT 1: GREETINGS AND SMALL TALK

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

01 USE

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02 FORM

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REGULAR AND
03 IRREGULAR

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VERBS
 USE
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02
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DEFINITION

The past is used to talk about a completed

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action in a time before now. 

Examples

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• My father died last year.
• He lived in Fiji in 1976.
• We crossed the Channel yesterday.

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—You always use the simple past when you

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say when something happened, so it is associated
with certain past time expressions

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frequency: often, sometimes, always
I sometimes walked home at lunchtime.
I often brought my lunch to school.

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A definite point in time: last week,
when I was a child, yesterday, six

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weeks ago
 We saw a good film last week.

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 Yesterday, I arrived in Geneva.
 She finished her work atseven o'clock
 I went to the theatre last night

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 Indefinite point in time

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An indefinite point in
time: the other day, ages ago,
a long time ago

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 People lived in caves
a long time ago.
 She played the
piano when she was a

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child.
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FORM

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AFFIRMATIVE, NEGATIVE,
QUESTION

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 Affirmative
The affirmative of the simple past tense is
simple.

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• I was in Japan last year
• She had a headache yesterday.
• We did our homework last night.

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For the negative and EXAMPLE
interrogative simple • Did you have a bicycle
past form of "to do" as when you were young?
an ordinary verb, use • Did you do much
the auxiliary "did", e.g. climbing in Switzerland?

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We didn't do our • We didn't have any
homework last night. money.
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REGULAR AND
IRREGULAR
VERBS

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 VERBS
An English verb can be regular or irregular. Regular verbs
form their past and past participle forms by adding –ed.

Walk – walked – walked

Dance – danced – danced
Paint – painted – painted
Work – worked – worked

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Study – studied– studied
Pronunciation

Some regular verbs

with the –ed ending Some regular verbs Some regular verbs
pronounced /d/ with the –ed ending with the –ed ending
pronounced /id/ pronounced /t/

Play-payed´played Wait- waited- waited Worke-worked-worked

Want–wanted -wanted
Show- showed-showed Cook-cooked-cooked

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Close –closed -closed Need-needed-nedeed Walk-walked-walked
 Irregular verbs
Irregular verbs form their past and past participle forms in different ways.

Cut- cut- cut

Verbs which have the same Verbs which have the same base
past simple and past feel- felt - felt form, past simple and past
participle participle
come came –come
Verbs which have
Break –broke -broken
the same base form
and past participle

Verbs which have a different

base form, past simple and

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past participle
Exercises

Put the verbs into the correct form (simple past).

1. Last year I (spend)  my holiday in Ireland.
2. It (be)  great.
3. I (travel)  around by car with two friends and
we (visit)  lots of interesting places.
4. In the evenings we usually (go)  to a pub.
5. One night we even (learn)  some Irish dances.
6. We (be)  very lucky with the weather.
7. It (not / rain)  a lot.
8. But we (see)  some beautiful rainbows.
9. Where (spend / you)  your last holiday?
10.Ana (be) sick.