Unit 1:                                                                         Education

Grammar:                                                The past simple of regular and irregular verbs.

Definition : The simple past is used to describe an action that occurred and was completed in the past.

Uses: We use the past tense to talk about:

·       something that happened once in the past:

I met my wife in 1983.
We went to Spain for our holidays.
They got home very late last night.

·       something that happened several times in the past:

When I was a boy, I walked a mile to school every day.
We swam a lot while we were on holiday.
They always enjoyed visiting their friends.

·       something that was true for some time in the past:

I lived abroad for ten years.
He enjoyed being a student.
She played a lot of tennis when she was younger.

·       we often use expressions with ago with the past simple:

I met my wife a long time ago.

The Forms of the past simple:

       I.             Regular verbs:

The simple past of regular verbs is formed by adding –ed to the base form of the verb (the infinitive without to).

Verb + ed= simple past

In English, the simple past of regular verbs is extremely easy. It is the same for all persons. Here are example sentences of the simple past with the verb WORK.

Affirmative form	Negative form	Interrogative  form
Subject+verb+ed+object	Subject+ did+not+ verb+ object	Did+subject+verb+object?
I worked yesterday	I did not(didn't) Work  yesterday	Did I Work  yesterday?
You worked yesterday	You didn't Work  yesterday	Did you Work  yesterday?
He worked yesterday	He didn't Work  yesterday	Did he Work  yesterday?
She worked yesterday	She didn't Work  yesterday	Did she Work  yesterday?
It worked yesterday	It didn't Work  yesterday	Did it Work  yesterday?
We worked yesterday	We didn't Work  yesterday	Did we Work  yesterday?
They worked yesterday	They didn't Work  yesterday	Did they Work  yesterday?

 

More examples:

Affirmative form:

§ I played tennis with my friends yesterday.

§ I finished lunch and I did my homework.

Interrogative form:

§ Did you play basketball yesterday?

§ Did you watch television?

Negative form:

§ I didn't like the food served in the wedding party last Saturday.

§ I didn't study English language.

Spelling rules:There are some spelling rules.

1)      If a verb ends in -e, you add -d.

agree → agreed
like → liked
escape → escaped

2)      If a verb ends in a vowel and a consonant, the consonant is usually doubled before -ed.

stop → stopped
plan → planned

3)      If a verb ends in consonant and -y, you take off the y and add -ied.

try → tried
carry → carried        

4)      But if the word ends in a vowel and -y, you add -ed.

play → played
enjoy → enjoyed

    II.             Irregular verbs:

Some verbs are irregular. Their past forms do not end in -ed. There is no rule for these verbs. You should learn them by heart.

The forms of the past simple:

The forms of irregular verbs are the same as that of regular verbs: the negatives are all formed with did + not + the infinitive without to.

The question forms are very similar: did + subject pronoun + the infinitive without to.

 

Affirmative form	Negative form	Interrogative  form
Subject+verb+ed+object	Subject+ did+not+ verb+ object	Did+subject+verb+object?
We were stuck in the airport.	We didn't think you would get home in time for your birthday.	Did you have enough food?
I took a taxi to the airport.	I didn't eat my breakfast.	Did you do the homework?

 

List of the most common irregular verbs :

Present	Past Simple					Present	Past Simple
be	was / were					begin	began
break	broke					bring	brought
build	built					buy	bought
catch	caught					choose	chose
come	came					cost	cost
cut	cut					do	did
draw	drew					drink	drank
drive	drove					eat	ate
fall	fell					feel	felt
fight	fought					find	found
fly	flew					forget	forgot
freeze	froze					get	got
give	gave					go	went
have	had					hear	heard
hold	held					hit	hit
keep	kept					know	knew
learn	learnt					leave	left
lead	led					let	let
lie	lay					lose	lost
make	made					mean	meant
meet	met					pay	paid
put	put					read	read
ride	rode					run	ran
say	said					see	saw
sell	sold					send	sent
set	set					shut	shut
sing	sang					sit	sat
sleep	slept					speak	spoke
spend	spent					stand	stood
steal	stole					swim	swam
take	took					teach	taught
tell	told					think	thought
understand	understood					wake	woke
wear	wore					win	won
write	wrote

 Exercices: of Unit 1 in your workbook.